INEC Announces 177,911 Newly Registered Voters for Edo, Ondo Governorship Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced a preliminary count of 177,911 newly registered voters ahead of the Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections, scheduled for September and November, respectively.

This information was disclosed on Monday in a statement by Sam Olumekun, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, and made available to journalists in Abuja.

According to the breakdown, 119,206 new registrants are in Edo, and 58,708 are in Ondo State.

The statement clarified that 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, as these are already captured in the register of voters.

The Commission also indicated that it will release the comprehensive and final register of voters to be used for the 2024 Governorship elections in both states in the coming days.

The statement partly reads: “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 (ABIS). These processes have now been concluded.

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

“Meanwhile, the analysis of new voters for Edo and Ondo States, indicating their distribution by Local Government Areas, gender, age, occupation, and disability, has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.”