The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday disclosed that young Nigerians, students have dominated the ongoing registration of voters.
INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu made the disclosure at the first consultative meeting with the media at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He disclosed that youths between the ages of 18 and 34 constitute the largest registrants.
“Some of the critical preparations for the 2023 general election must be concluded this year,” he said, adding that, “For instance, the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) which commenced in June last year has entered the third quarter.
Providing an update, he said, “As at Monday 17th January 2022, a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration; completed the registration physically; applied for transfer to new voting locations; requested for replacement of their PVCs; & updated their voter information records.
“The Commission has been publishing weekly progress reports of the exercise, including analysis of the distribution of online and completed registration by age group, occupation, gender and disability.
“Since the exercise commenced in June last year, the Commission has so far published 36 weekly reports which show a consistent pattern of young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34 constituting the largest majority of registrants.
“In terms of occupation, students constitute the largest majority of registrants which is consistent with the dominance of young Nigerians as voters.
“There is a lot of information for public enlightenment and sensitization. We seek for the support of media organisations in this regard.
He also addressed the issue of how and where citizens can pick up their Permanent Voters Card (PVC). “Related to the issue of voter registration is the issuance of PVCs. We are aware that Nigerians want to know when their PVCs will be available for collection,” he said.
“For those who have completed the registration, the Commission is right now undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of the data to ensure that only eligible citizens are added to the voters’ register for the 2023 general election.”
