Gubernatorial : INEC registers 119,206 in Edo, 58,708 in Ondo

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday about 177,914 voters would be added to the list of eligible voters for the off cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states later in the year.

A figure released by the commission showed about 92,098 out of 269,992 citizens that showed up for the exercise did not meet the requirements for registration during the exercise and were screened out of the register.

A statement said the final list of eligible voters and date for the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in the two states would soon be made public.

The statement signed by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said the figure did not include 8,847 applications for transfer into Edo State and 3,132 into Ondo State from other states ‘’because they are already part of the voters register.

Before the Continuous Voter Registration, which ended on June 9 ahead of the elections in the two states, there were 2,501,081 registered voters in Edo State out of which, 2,128,288 collected their PVCs.

Similarly, Ondo State had 1,991,344 registered voters, out of which 1,729,641 collected their PVCs.

The statement further said: “Nigerians may recall that in our statement on June 11, we released preliminary figures of newly-registered voters for the coming Edo and Ondo states governorship elections before the period for claims and objections, followed by the cleaning up of the data, using Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS). These processes have been concluded.

“The number of new voters for Edo State is 119,206 and 58,708 for Ondo State. These figures do not include 8,847 applications for transfer into Edo State and 3,132 into Ondo State from other states.

“Similarly, they do not include applications for transfer within the two states because they are already captured in the register of voters.