TheCable

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says over six million new applicants have completed their voter registration.

This comes as the commission suspended the online voter pre-registration exercise on Monday.

The commission had said the suspension would give time to those who registered online to complete their registration physically and would enable the commission to clean up the registration data.

In June 2021, the commission launched a portal where Nigerians can register or request to update their voter information before they complete the process physically at designated centres.

According to data released by the commission on Monday, the number of registrants who had completed their registration was 6,544,245 as at 7am on May 30 . It said of this number, 2,928,447 had started their registration online while 3,615,798 had done their registration entirely at a physical centre.

Osun state is in the lead for the number of completed registrations with 360,625, followed by Bayelsa with 326,450 and Delta with 327,852.

According to INEC, youths aged between 18 and 35 constitute the highest number of completed registrations with a total of 4,550,847.

The commission gave the number of online pre-registrations as 10,235,569 and the data shows that Osun is also in the lead with 709,020 applications, followed by Delta with 632,604 applications, and Lagos with 596,999.

After including those requesting voter transfer, requests for replacement of permanent voter cards (PVCs), and update of voter information records, the total figure stands at 18,912,511 applications.

INEC said physical registration will still continue until the CVR exercise is suspended on June 30, 2022.