…Updates Nigerians on Political Party Application
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday, September 4, 2025, announced the release of the final register of voters for the upcoming Anambra State Governorship Election scheduled to hold in exactly 63 days, on Saturday, November 8, 2025.
The announcement came after a meeting of the Commission where officials deliberated on two major issues: the state’s final register of voters and an update on the growing number of associations seeking registration as political parties.
Over 140,000 New Voters Added
According to the Commission, a voter registration exercise was conducted across the 326 wards of Anambra State between July 8 and 20, 2025. During this period, 168,187 citizens registered as new voters.
However, the Commission explained that not all registrations were valid. In compliance with Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC displayed the list of new registrants for claims and objections before subjecting the records to biometric scrutiny through the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
“At the end of the process, 27,817 records were found to be double or multiple registrations and removed from the list,” the Commission stated.
This reduced the number of valid new registrants to 140,370. In addition, 5,983 valid applications were received for voter transfer into Anambra State, bringing the total new additions to 146,353 voters.
Prior to the latest exercise, Anambra had 2,656,437 registered voters. With the additions, the state now has a total of 2,802,790 registered voters eligible to participate in the November governorship election.
INEC also provided a breakdown of voter distribution across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state. Idemili North tops the list with 246,318 voters (8.79%), followed by Awka South with 216,611 voters (7.73%), and Ogbaru with 188,016 voters (6.71%).
On the lower end of the scale, Dunokofia and Anambra West have the least number of registered voters with 83,580 (2.98%) and 71,332 (2.55%) respectively.
The Commission confirmed that the full details of the distribution are available on its website and official platforms for public access.
INEC further assured citizens that Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for newly registered voters, as well as those who requested transfers or replacements for lost and damaged cards, would be ready for collection “well ahead of the Governorship Election holding on November 8, 2025.”
On the issue of political party registration, INEC disclosed that there has been a surge in the number of groups expressing interest in being registered.
“Since our last update, 19 more letters of intent have been received, bringing the total so far to 171 as at yesterday, 3rd September 2025,” the Commission revealed.
The Commission also noted challenges slowing down the process, including frequent changes to logos, acronyms, and addresses by some associations, as well as multiple submissions by the same groups. In some cases, interim leadership of these associations have defected to existing political parties, further complicating the review process.
“We wish to appeal to all the associations that submitted letters of intent to remain patient as we finalise the process. We also urge them to avoid frequent changes… Worse still, some associations have changed their interim leaderships, following defections to other associations or even existing political parties, thereby delaying the process,” the statement added.
The Commission assured that all applications will be treated fairly, while urging consistency on the part of the associations to smoothen the process.
Speaking through its National Commissioner and Chairman of Information & Voter Education, Sam Olumekun, INEC reiterated its commitment to transparency and fairness.
“We wish to reassure the associations that the Commission will treat all applications fairly while urging them to assist the process by remaining consistent. As always, the Commission will continue to communicate with Nigerians on all its activities,” Olumekun said.
With just over two months to the highly anticipated Anambra Governorship Election, the release of the final voter register marks another significant step in INEC’s preparations, even as the political atmosphere in the state heats up and party primaries continue to define the line-up of candidates.
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