The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced a remarkable surge in civic engagement, with 1,379,342 Nigerians completing the online pre-registration process in just its first week.
The strong public response comes as the commission today commences the next phase: nationwide in-person voter registration at its 811 state and local government offices.
The breakdown of the online pre-registrations reveals a significant demographic trend, with young people leading the charge. The data shows that “young people between the ages of 18 and 34 constitute the majority of the registrants with 860,286 (62.37%).” In terms of gender distribution, the figures are closely matched, with “661,846 (47.96%) are male and 717,856 (52.04%) are female.” Furthermore, 374,534 registrants (27.15%) are students, and 27,089 (1.96%) are persons with disabilities.
This physical registration phase is crucial as it will “afford those who prefer the in-person option to register at the centres and those who chose the online pre-registration method to complete their registration.” The commission has reiterated that the exercise is only for Nigerian citizens who are at least 18 years old and are not already registered voters, firmly stating that “double or multiple registration is a violation of the law.”
With the entire Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise set to continue for one year until 30th August 2026, INEC is urging citizens not to procrastinate. The commission has advised “all intending registrants not to wait until the deadline approaches when, from experience, the registration centres are inundated by eleventh hour registrants.” The public can find the full detailed breakdown of the registrations by state and demographics on INEC’s official website and platforms.
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