INEC rules out postponement of Feb, March general elections

• Says no adjustment to timetable

• Assures of credible, transparent pills

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared that it is neither contemplating any adjustment to the timetable of the forthcoming general election nor the postponement of the election.

The Commission has specifically assured that the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday 25th February 2023 while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday 11th March 2023.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu gave the assurance yesterday during the presentation of national register of voters to the political parties in Abuja.

Yakubu pointed out that the repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of INEC personnel, materials and processes also reinforced the commission’s determination to proceed with the elections.

The 2023 General Election, he vowed, will hold as scheduled, stating that any 

report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission.

According to the INEC Chairman, In short, at no time in the recent history of the Commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a General Election. 

“Therefore, the Commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the General Election. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday 25th February 2023 while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday 11th March 2023. 

“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. 

“The 2023 General Election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the Commission”, he declared.

Continuing, Prof Yakubu said, “As a further affirmation of the Commission’s readiness to conduct the 2023 General Election as scheduled, the final register of voters has been compiled. 

“You would recall that for the 2019 General Election, Nigeria had a voter population of 84,004,084. After the cleaning up of the data from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise (June 2021 – July 2022), 9,518,188 new voters were added to the previous register resulting in the preliminary register of 93,522,272 which was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law. 

“At the end of the period for claims and objections by citizens, the Commission received 53,264 objections from Nigerians to the prevalence of ineligible persons on the register by virtue of age, citizenship or death. 

“These names have been verified and removed from the register. 

“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 General Election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5%) are male while 44,414,846 (47.5%) are female. 

“The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65%) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75%) are middle aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49; 17,700,270 (18.94%) are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66%) are senior citizens aged 70 and above. 

“In terms of occupational distribution, students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8%) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8%) Farmers/Fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9%) housewives. The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. 

“However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5%) persons with Albinism; 13,387 (15.7%) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5%) are blind.

Prof Yakubu thus reiterated INEC’s

commitment to transparent, credible and inclusive 2023 General Election.

“We will continue to take every step to protect the sanctity of the votes cast by citizens and to deal with infractions, including the arrest and prosecution of persons that attempt to perpetuate illegality at Polling Units on Election Day, be they underaged voters or vote buyers”, he assured concretely.