The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has completed the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in Anambra State, recording a total of 168,187 new registrants.
This marks the highest number of new voters registered within a two-week period since the CVR process was introduced in 2017.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mr. Sam Olumekun, made the announcement in a statement issued on Friday in Awka.
“The CVR, which was initially scheduled to end on July 17, was extended by three days to July 20, 2025, in response to appeals from stakeholders,” Olumekun explained.
“The turnout reflected the growing interest of citizens in the electoral process ahead of the Nov. 8 off-cycle governorship election in Anambra state.”
While noting that the current numbers were still preliminary and subject to data validation, Olumekun provided a breakdown of the demographic statistics.
Of the 168,187 registrants, 97,832 (58%) were female, while 70,355 (42%) were male.
He further revealed that young voters between the ages of 18 and 34 made up a significant portion of the registrants, totaling 90,763 or 53.97% of the new voters.
In terms of occupation, business owners formed the largest group, with 62,157 registrants, accounting for 36.92%, followed by students at 44,243 or 26.31%.
Additionally, 303 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) were registered, alongside 207 individuals identified as persons with albinism.
“A comprehensive demographic breakdown has been uploaded to the commission’s website and other digital platforms for public information,” Olumekun added.
The next step in the electoral process will be the display of the preliminary voter register across the 326 Wards in the state.
This phase, scheduled from July 26 to August 1, will allow members of the public to inspect the register and raise any claims or objections.
“Once this is concluded and the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) is deployed to weed out multiple or ineligible entries, the new registrants will be added to the existing register,” he said.
“The complete list will be published on a Polling Unit basis.”
He assured the people of Anambra that Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would be ready ahead of the election for all those who newly registered or applied for transfers or replacements.
“With 105 days to the election, the commission is aware of the tight timelines,” Olumekun stated.
“But, we wish to reassure all new registrants in Anambra that their PVCs will be available for collection before the election.”
In a related development, INEC has concluded internal testing of a newly developed portal for political party registration, designed in-house by its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department.
“As is the case with all our Information Technology (IT) innovations, the new portal has been demonstrated before the commission and approved for deployment,” Olumekun said.
He also disclosed that the commission is currently reviewing 144 letters of intent from political associations seeking registration, with 10 new applications received recently.
