INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu while speaking at the Civil Society Organization in its first quarterly meeting of the year at Abuja on Wednesday announced that the commission won’t allow underage voting in 2023.
He maintained that only eligible citizens would be added to the voters’ register for the 2023 poll.
“We are aware that Nigerians want to know when their PVCs will be available for collection,” he said.
“We appreciate the role of civil society organisations in encouraging and mobilising eligible Nigerians who have not registered to do so. At the same time, we want you to continue to sensitise them that those who had registered at any time previously need not register again.
“For those who have completed the registration, the Commission is right now undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of data to ensure that only eligible citizens are added to the voters’ register for the 2023 General Election. We will share our findings with Nigerians very soon. The actual dates for the collection of the Permanent Voters’ Cards nationwide will also be announced very soon,” Yakubu said.
The INEC chairman also said a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically, applied for a transfer to new voting locations, requested for replacement of their PVCs and updated their voter information records.
According to him, since the exercise commenced in June last year, the Commission has so far published 36 weekly reports which show a consistent pattern of young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34 constituting the largest majority of registrants.
He said that students constitute the largest majority of registrants
In terms of occupation,
which he said is consistent with the dominance of young Nigerians as voters.
