THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recorded a higher number of female registrants as more than 8.6 million Nigerians completed the voter registration process since the commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in June 2021.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, disclosed this on Friday during a Twitter space session organised by The ICIR on the ongoing Permanent Voter Registration exercise.
Oyekanmi said the development shows that women are determined to participate in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
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“The actual number of people that have completed their registration between June 2021 and Monday this week came to about 8.6 million. Precisely, 8, 631,696 million and interestingly, women are more. We have more women registrants than men,” Oyekanmi said.
“Both of them are tied at 4 million figure but females have in total 4,339,006 while males account for 4,292,690 which is quite significant that women are determined to vote this time.”
The INEC started the 2021/2022 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on June 28, 2021. The exercise was supposed to end on June 30 but was extended following the pressure from civil society organisations, who went to court to obtain an order that compelled INEC to extend its earlier deadline.
Oyekanmi said many people did not turn up when the process commenced in June 2021 until six months to the initial deadline.
He said the late rush was the reason for the overwhelming crowds being recorded at various registration centres.
“When we first started this in June 2021, in the opening months- first-three-four-five months, there were days when three persons, four persons, sometimes one, sometimes none, turned up to register across our centres in the country but suddenly about six weeks to the deadline, people started coming out and I think that is not the fault of the Commission,” he said.
Oyekanmi said this led to the extension of the deadline for the voter registration exercise.
He added that the new Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) will be available for collection from October this year till about a week to the commencement of the 2023 general elections.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.