INEC registers 177,914 new voters ahead of Edo, Ondo gov. polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced the finalised figures for newly registered voters ahead of the upcoming Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections.

The final count revealed that Edo State has 119,206 new voters, while Ondo State has 58,708.

The National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, announced in a press release issued on Monday.

Following the initial release of preliminary numbers on June 11, 2024, INEC has completed the data verification process using the Automated Biometric Identification System.

“Nigerians may recall that in our Press Statement on Tuesday 11th June 2024, we released the preliminary figures of newly registered voters for the forthcoming Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections before the period for claims and objections, followed by the cleaning up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System. These processes have now been concluded.

“The number of new voters for Edo State is 119,206 and 58,708 for Ondo State,” Olumekun noted.

However, the commission stated that the figures excluded the 8,847 applications for voter transfers into Edo State and 3,132 into Ondo State from other parts of the country.

In addition to these new registrations, applications for transfers within Edo and Ondo States have already been integrated into the voter register.

“These figures do not include the 8,847 applications for transfer into Edo State and the 3,132 into Ondo State from other States of the Federation.

“Similarly, they do not include applications for transfer within the two States because they are already captured on the register of voters.

“The figures of the new voters and inter-state transfers are being integrated into the existing register,” the statement read in part.

INEC will release the comprehensive and final register of voters for both states in the coming days.

“In the next few days, the Commission will release the comprehensive and final register of voters to be used for the 2024 Governorship elections for each of the two States,” he noted.

For public transparency, detailed analyses of the new voters, broken down by local government areas, gender, age, occupation, and disability status, have been uploaded to INEC’s website and social media platforms, the national commissioner added.

The Edo election is slated to take place on September 21, 2024. Seventeen political parties are presenting candidates for the election.

The Ondo election is scheduled to take place on November 16, 2024. Seventeen political parties fielded candidates, but notably, no female candidates were among the governorship candidates.