TheCable

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says 66 percent of applications received so far on the online portal for the continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise are from youths.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said this on Tuesday, at a meeting with resident electoral commissioners in Abuja.

The commission, on June 28, launched an online portal where citizens can register or request to update their voter information before they complete the process physically at designated centres across the country.

Speaking on the exercise, Yakubu said 542,576 Nigerians have completed the online registration, 66 percent of whom are youths.

“As at 7am yesterday, Monday 12th July 2021, exactly two weeks since the exercise began, a total of 542,576 Nigerians have completed the online pre-registration. Out of this figure, 456,909 are fresh registrants while 85,667 have applied for voter transfer, replacement of permanent voter cards (PVCs), and update of voter information record,” he said.

“The commission is also able to provide Nigerians with information on the distribution of registrants across the states of the federation and by age, occupation, gender and disability.

“Out of 542,576 online registrants so far, 356,777 (or 66%) are young people between the ages of 18 and 34 years. This is followed by 134,719 middle-aged registrants who fall between 35 and 49 years. The third category is elderly persons aged between 50 and 69 years of which 44,896 Nigerians have registered. Interestingly, some 6,184 senior citizens (aged 70 years and above) have taken advantage of the new online opportunity to register.”

The INEC chairman also said in the occupational distribution of registrants, there are 156,446 students; 38,217 artisans, 24,421 farmers and fishermen, 150,145 businessmen and traders, 35,831 employed as civil and public servants, and 8,334 housewives.

He said the remaining 129,182 registrants did not specify their occupations.

“On gender, 321,781 are male while 220,795 are female. In our effort to serve all Nigerians better, the commission has requested registrants to indicate their disability (if any). This will enable us to optimally and efficiently deploy assistive voting devices such as Braille ballot guide and magnifying glasses for persons with special needs at polling units on election day. So far, we have data for 6,558 registrants who have clearly indicated their type of disability,” he added.

The commission also gave details of the schedule of activities and 811 locations for the completion of online pre-registration and physical registration.