INEC confirms 11m new voters as group opposes July 31 deadline

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said 11 million citizens had been added to the nation’s voter register (CVR) as at 7:00 a.m. on Monday, July 25.

Making the disclosure in an update, yesterday, in Abuja, the electoral umpire clarified that the exercise would end on July 31.

INEC added 10,487,972 new capturing was recorded, comprising 3,391,940 online and 7,619,179 physical registrants.

According to the commission, the gender composition so far is 5,453,071 males and 5,558,048 females.

The statistics also indicated that 7,828,570 of the figure are youths, while 80,101 belong to persons with disabilities (PWDs).

The update also revealed that as of 7 a.m. yesterday, INEC received 28,453, 255 applications, including requests for voter transfer, replacement of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and voter information record adjustment.

THIS is even as the convener of the Coalition of Nigerian Voters, Asuzu Echezona, argued that the July 31 deadline would disenfranchise millions of Nigerians in 2023.

He said millions of citizens were still visiting registration centres nationwide to get captured.

His words: “With the current rate of registration, it is public knowledge that there is no magic that would make INEC accommodate every voter, who wants to register for the 2023 general elections, before the current deadline of July 31, 2022. This would result in the disenfranchisement of millions of Nigerians willing and eager to perform their civic responsibilities in the 2023 polls. This would be defeatist of INEC objectives.”