INEC Gives Update On Registered Voters For Edo, Ondo Guber Polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially disclosed the updated statistics for newly registered voters in preparation for the forthcoming off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo State.

The latest report from INEC regarding the civic exercise indicates that Edo State has recorded 119,206 new voters, whereas Ondo State has registered 58,708 individuals.

The National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, made this announcement through a press release distributed on Monday.

After releasing the initial figures on June 11, 2024, INEC has successfully finalized the data authentication procedure with the utilization of the Automated Biometric Identification System.

“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. These processes have now been concluded.

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

The commission clarified that the numbers provided did not account for the 8,847 requests for voter transfers to Edo State and 3,132 to Ondo State from other regions of the country.

Furthermore, the voter register has already been updated to include the new registrations as well as transfer applications within the Edo and Ondo States.

“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,” the statement read in part.

INEC will release the comprehensive and final register of voters for both states in the coming days.

“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,” he noted.

In the interest of public transparency, comprehensive analyses of the new voter demographics, categorized by local government areas, gender, age, occupation, and disability status, have been made available on INEC’s website and social media channels, as stated by the national commissioner.

The Edo gubernatorial election will be held with seventeen political parties nominating candidates for this event.

The Ondo gubernatorial election is planned for November 16, 2024.

While seventeen political parties have put forth candidates, it is noteworthy that there are no female candidates among those running for the governorship.