Newly registered voters mostly students, housewives, says INEC

• Youth make up 69.7% as the commission registers 6.8 million new voters

The Independent National Electoral Commission (IEC) says it has registered 6.8 million new voters by mid-June 2021 when it begins its ongoing voter registration drive.

It noted that about 4.8 million new registrants, representing 69.7 percent, were young people, most of whom were students, business people and housewives.

Speaking on Thursday when the commission reported the first Twitter News, entitled ‘The importance of young people participating in the election process’, INEC Deputy Director of ICT, Bimbo Oladunjoye, said it appeared that more young people were ready to vote. the next election.

The program was attended by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Voter Information and Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye; Secretary-General of InEC Chairman of the INEC, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi; YIAGA Africa Executive Director, Samson Itodo; Program Manager, Democracy and Law Enforcement, European Union Mission to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms Laolu Olawumi, and several young people.

Oladunjoye noted that of the 2.5 million new voters who had registered since January 2022, the duplication process in this field showed that about 1.1 million were unemployed.

“Since January, we have been registering people,” he said. Since 6pm (Thursday), we have received about 19.7 million applications in the system, which means people who visit our site and office to make a transfer, request a PVC reprint, make their full registration, update their details or update their record.

“Of the 19.7 million applications, 6.8 million such applications are made up of 4.8 million youth. That represents about 69.7 percent of the 6.8 million subscribers. And it is almost equal in gender. We have 49.6 percent women and 50.4 percent men.

“In terms of employment we have seen an estimated 2.3 million registered youth of 4.8 million students. About 50 percent of teens are enrolled at the time of enrollment. That is followed by entrepreneurs, about 14 percent. Interestingly, we have 11% of housewives, which means that 11% of newly registered teens are housewives.

“This means that the youth are already on track to make sure they vote in the next election. Also, Nigerians can do many things on the CVR portal; you do not need to go to the INEC office to transfer your polling station, retrieve your photo, update your details, such as after the wedding change, address change, lost PVC, review or registration or identify the INEC equipment. This can be done on the portal. ”

This means that since Thursday, the number of subscribers has increased from 84,004,084 in 2019 to about 90.8 million.

Meanwhile, INEC said on Wednesday that a total of 20 million voter cards would be collected.

Speaking on the need for people to register, collect their PVCs and vote, Itodo said he was impressed with the percentage of young people who registered, but said they should still collect their PVCs and vote.

“The truth is that the 2023 elections are very important for a number of reasons,” he said. When young people register to vote, not many turn out to vote. Prior to 2019, there were about 51 percent of young people on the voters’ roll, but sadly we did not count our number as young people in the election. In the 2019 elections, only 28 percent of young people turned out in the presidential election and 29 percent in the general election.

“The 2023 elections give us the opportunity to participate in this process and find the leaders we need. Without sounding like a mere rhetoric, the 2023 election is about a war for the soul of our country. Many young people are angry about leadership at various levels. They want a new kind of leadership and they want new people in positions, so there is that determination.

“But the only way we can get the leadership we want as young people is to register to vote and vote. Staying away will not help us. I say with all the sense of commitment that votes are now being counted in Nigeria. Those are no longer where voters will be at the polling stations and the results will be announced in Abuja.

You can not compromise the process as before. There are new technologies, such as BVAS and IRev, introduced by INEC that help protect the integrity and integrity of the electorate, ”he added.

He challenged the youth to stand up and “rescue the country from the hands of the oppressors and the evil leaders who are holding us hostage at all levels”, adding that the people should choose talented people, who have no nationality and religion. “If we fail to take advantage of the opportunity we have in 2023, we will be guilty of it,” he added.

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