Ahead guber poll: INEC registers 119,206 new voters in Edo

*Also 58,708 new voters in Ondo

By Folorunso Alagbede, Abuja

Ahead of the next month’s governorship election in Edo State, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Monday put the number of newly registered voters in the State at 119,206.

The Commission made the disclosure in a statement on Monday by its National Commissioner and Chairman,

Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Sam Olumekun.

The statement equally showed that the newly registered voters for Ondo State ahead of the November governorship election in the State stand at 58,708.

These figures, according to INEC, do not include the 8,847 applications for transfer into Edo State and the 3,132 into Ondo State from other States of the Federation.

Similarly, they do not include applications for transfer within the two States because they are already captured on the register of voters, the statement by Olumekun said.

The figures of the new voters and inter-State transfers, according to the statement, are being integrated into the existing register, adding that in the next few days, the Commission will release the comprehensive and final register of voters to be used for the 2024 Governorship elections for each of the two States.

The statement by Olumekun reads, “Nigerians may recall that in our Press Statement on Tuesday 11th June 2024, we released the preliminary figures of newly registered voters for the forthcoming Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections before the period for claims and objections, followed by the cleaning up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).

“These processes have now been concluded.

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

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

“The figures of the new voters and inter-State transfers are being integrated into the existing register. In the next few days, the Commission will release the comprehensive and final register of voters to be used for the 2024 Governorship elections for each of the two States.

“Meanwhile, the analysis of new voters for Edo and Ondo States, indicating their distribution by Local Government Areas, gender, age, occupation and disability has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information”, it explained.