Anambra guber poll: INEC registers over 96,000 voters in nine days

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has registered 96,085 new voters in Anambra in nine days.

Sam Olumekun, INEC’s national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, announced the latest number of registered voters during the commission’s weekly meeting in Abuja on Thursday.

The electoral body commenced the continuous voter registration process (CVR) in Anambra on July 8 ahead of the November 8 governorship election.

Olumekun said 56,017, representing 58 percent of new registrants, were female, while 50,429,52, representing 48 percent were young people between the ages of 18 and 34.

“The commission is pleased with the turnout of registrants in Anambra and the peaceful conduct of the continuous voter registration (CVR) in all the 326 registration centres in the state,” he said.

“As of yesterday, Wednesday, 96,085 new voters have successfully registered in nine days. On average, the commission registered over 10,600 voters per day.

“In addition, 12,595 voters applied for the transfer of their registration both within and outside the state, while 7,061 persons applied for the update of their records or the replacement of their damaged or lost permanent voter cards (PVCs).”

Olumekun said INEC has extended the exercise for three more days in response to citizens’ appeals.

“It will now end on Sunday, July 20,” he added.

He said the commission would display the register for citizen claims and objections, followed by a further cleanup of the data using the automated biometric identification system (ABIS).

Olumekun also disclosed that INEC had received five more letters of intent from associations seeking registration as political parties, bringing the total number of letters received by the commission to 134.

He said the details of the new associations, indicating their proposed names, acronyms, logos, addresses, and interim leadership, had already been published on the INEC website and other platforms for public information.