Nigerians have been reassured by the Independent National Electoral Commission that the general elections will take place on schedule in 2023.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the commission, who provided the assurances, stated that INEC is not planning to change the poll schedule in any way, or postpone the election given that significant amounts of “sensitive and non-sensitive materials” have already been distributed to numerous places across the nation.
Yakubu said this on Wednesday in Abuja, when he gave political party leaders an electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter registration list.
He added that the commission was better prepared for the general elections in 2023 and that 11 out of the 14 scheduled election-related tasks had already been completed.
Yakubu said; “Already, substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country.
“The last batch of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has been received, while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed. In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to States across the country.
“Already, some of the materials for 17 States in three geo-political zones have been delivered. Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been printed, and delivered to States and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law.”
He continued, “Similarly, following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled.
“In short, at no time in the recent history of the Commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a General Election.
“Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the General Election.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed.
“The 2023 General Election will be held as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission”, he added.
Yakubu stated that the number of preliminary registered voters was 93,522,272 following the cleaning up of the data from the most recent Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) from June 2021 to July 2022, where 9,518,188 additional voters were added to the already existing 84,004,084 voters.
According to him, when the register was made available for claims and objections as required by law, 53,264 Nigerians raised objections to the presence of ineligible individuals on it due to their age, citizenship, or death.
These objections were verified, and the ineligible individuals were then removed from the register.
“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 General Election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5 percent) are male while 44,414,846 (47.5 percent) are female.
“The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65 percent ) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75 percent) are middle-aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49;
“17,700,270 (18.94 percent ) are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66%) are senior citizens aged 70 and above.
“In terms of occupational distribution, students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8%) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8 percent ) Farmers/Fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9 percent) housewives.
“The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5 percent ) persons with Albinism; 13,387 (15.7 percent ) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5 percent) are blind.”
Lagos, with 7,060,195 voters, has the most registered voters, followed by Kano State (5,921,370) and Kaduna (4,335,208).
The least number of voters are registered in Ekiti State (987,647), followed by Bayelsa (1,056,862) and Yobe (1,485,146).
Yakubu stated that the breakdown and analysis’ softcopy will soon be posted to the INEC website and various social media platforms.
Yakubu reaffirmed INEC’s dedication to transparent, credible, and inclusive general elections in 2023, and he said that INEC would continue to take all necessary precautions to ensure the integrity of the votes cast by citizens and to deal with violations.
This, he warned, includes the detention and prosecution of anyone who try to commit crimes at polling places on election day, including young voters and vote buys.
Yakubu stated that places for collection may be found by sending a brief text message to any of the two dedicated telephone lines on the collecting of PVCs at 8,809 Registration Areas/Wards around the country.
