By Adeleye Kunle
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it has added a total of 9.518 million new voters to the existing 84 million voter register, bringing the preliminary number of prospective voters in the 2023 general elections to 93 million.
INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu made the disclosure on Wednesday during the Commission’s quarterly meeting with political parties in Abuja.
He also reiterated the earlier resolve of the Commission to conduct transparent, free, fair and credible polls in 2023.
Prof Yakubu maintained that regardless of insinuations, there will be no going back on the decision to deploy technology in the form of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) as well as the Electronic Transmission of Results of the elections as approved by enabling laws.
He gave insight into the demographics of the new registrants, stating that young people (18-34years ) constitute 76.5 % or 7.2 million of new voters.
“In terms of demographic distribution, 7.2 million new voters or 76.5% are young people between 18-34 years while there is a slightly higher number of females (4.8 million or 50.82%) than males (4.6 million or 49.18%) voters. In terms of occupation, 3.8 million (40.8%) are students”, he said
