The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that no fewer than 1,565,873 Nigerians have successfully completed their voter registration as of June 26.

The figure was recorded at the end of the seventh week of Phase III of the commission’s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

According to statistics released by INEC yesterday in Abuja, the figure comprises 620,933 citizens who completed their online pre-registration and 944,940 who registered physically.

The commission, however, said the statistics remain preliminary, pending a comprehensive data clean-up during the scheduled period for public claims and objections, after which the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) will be deployed.

The state-by-state breakdown showed that Kano recorded the highest number of registrants, with 118,207, representing 7.55 per cent of the national total.

It was followed by Lagos with 78,360 registrants, representing five per cent, and Delta with 76,395, representing 4.88 per cent.

INEC also said voter registration had been temporarily suspended in Ekiti and Osun states due to the just-concluded governorship election in Ekiti and the forthcoming governorship election in Osun, in compliance with Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022.

Meanwhile, a group, Youth Empowerment Solutions Africa (YES Africa), has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise by an additional 3 months, rather than the July 10, 2026, deadline.

The Executive Director, Oche Edeh, in a statement in Abuja, said that a three-month extension to October 10, 2026, will allow INEC to open more centres closer to communities, deploy additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS)/laptops, stabilise the online portal, and run weekend/evening sessions.

Edeh also explained that the group’s field teams and observers across cities and communities are reporting a surge of eligible Nigerians, especially youth, women, and persons with disabilities aged 18-35 years, who are ready to register but have been unable to do so.

According to the Executive Director, the reported barriers, including slow registration processes such as long queues and low staff capacity at registration centres, mean that many people are turned away daily without being captured.

He further explained that proximity and accessibility matter most, as many centres are too far from rural communities and urban slums, and transportation costs hinder first-time voters, alongside technical and Internet failures.
However, the Africa Office of the Non-Governmental Organisation, The All-Rights Foundation (TAF), is facilitating the inclusion of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the ongoing CVR exercise.

TAF Africa, in partnership with INEC, conducted the CVR at the IDP mega camp in Guma, Benue State.  Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of TAF Africa, Terfa Tyokase, told The Guardian at the venue of the exercise that the organisation aims to “ensure that IDP’S are also included in the voting process.

“In this camp alone, we have about 7,000 people. This number of persons can make a lot of impact in the election. This is the pilot phase. We want to ensure that INEC goes to the camps and registers the IDPs so that they too can vote,” he said.