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South-South, North-West Take Lion Share As INEC Records 12m New Voters Registered

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that the commission has recorded a total of 12,298,944 fresh registrants, following the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which commenced on June 28, 2020.

Recall that the commission had ended the exercise on Sunday, July 31, after a one-month extension from the initial 30 June deadline.

The exercise is said to be suspended till after the 2023 general elections.

According to a report by INEC, the number of registrants, the 12, 298, 944 new registrants were made up of 6,074,078 males and 6,224,866 females of which 87,083 were people living with disabilities (PWDs) and 8,784,677 youths.

A breakdown of the figure by Vanguard indicated that of the fresh 12,298,944 registrants accounted for 6,359,711 people from the North while 5,939,233 people reside in the South, indicating a disparity of 420, 478.

According to geo-political zones, the North-West accounted for the highest registrants with 2,514,273 people, while the South-South followed with 2,458,095 new registrants.

The North-Central trailed the North-West and the South-South with 2,314,368, while the South-West accounted for 2,039,982.

The INEC report also indicated that the North-East accounted for 1,531,070 new registrants, while the South-East had the least completed registration with 1,441,156.

A state-by-state breakdown of the INEC database shows that Lagos and Kano had the highest number of new registrants with 585,620 and 569,103 respectively.

Delta State trailed them with 523, 517 applications, while Yobe and Ekiti states accounted for the lowest registration with 152,414 and 124, 844 applications.