4.6 million voters for Edo, Ondo governorship election – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said a total of 2,629,025 registered voters are eligible to participate in the September 21 Edo State governorship election.

The commission also disclosed that 2,053,061 registered voters will participate in the November 16 governorship poll in Ondo State.

National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, made the disclosure on Tuesday after the commission met to approve the final register of voters for the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

He said the register integrated new voters from the recent Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) as well as the figures of successful applicants for transfer from other states of the Federation to the two states.

Of the 2,629,025 voters in Edo, Olumekun said 1,370,061, representing 52.11 percent, are male while 1,258,964, indicating 47.89 percent, are female.

“Youths (18 – 35 years) account for 983,133 (37.4%), followed by middle-aged (36 – 49) persons. Together, they constitute 1,897,939 (72.2%) of registered voters in the state. In terms of occupation, 868,764 students constitute the majority of voters (33.05%). There are 4,199 (0.16%) Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The new register represents a 4.9% increase over the 2023 General Election figure of 2,501,081,” he stated.

For Ondo State, the INEC spokesperson said of the 2,053,061 registered voters, 1,034,006, indicating 50.36 percent, are male while 1,034,964 are female.

He said: “Youths (18 – 35 years) account for 726,944 (35.41%), followed by 721,982 (35.17%) middle-aged (36 – 49) persons. Together, they constitute 1,448,926 (70.57%) of registered voters in the state. In terms of occupation, 694,938 students constitute the majority of voters. There are 1,782 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).”

Olumekun said the new register represents a three percent increase over the 2023 General Election figure of 1,191,344.

According to him, a detailed breakdown of the register for each state by Local Government Areas, gender, age, occupation, and disability has been uploaded on the commission’s website and social media platforms for public information.

“In the next few days, the Commission will release the timetable for the collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for the two states for all categories of voters, including new registrants from the last CVR, voters that applied for transfers, replacements, and uncollected cards from previous registrations,” he added.