SOUTH WEST LEADS IN VOTER REGISTRATION EXERCISE
With 242,738 new registrants so far, the South West zone is leading, in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise which commenced on June, 28, 2021.
Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), disclosed at meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja, that the commission had received 542,576 online applications in the first two weeks of the resumption of the exercise.
According to him, 456,909 were fresh registrants while 85,667 applied for voter transfer, replacement of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), update of voter information record, among others.
A breakdown of the figure revealed that of the 456,909 fresh registrants, 353,369 came from the Southern part of the country, while 103,540 reside in the North, indicating a disparity of 249,829.
Rating the applications according to geo-political zones, it was discovered that so far, the Southwest recorded the highest applicants with 242,738 new registrants. The South-South followed with 79,614 while the North Central has 69,072.
Also, about 31,017 new applications came from the South East while the commission received 20,866 from the North West. The North East recorded the lowest with, 13,602 applications.
A state-by-state breakdown revealed that Osun State has the highest number of new registrants with 154,893, Lagos, 44,789 while Ebonyi recorded the least with 610.
The development might not be unconnected to the Internet divide between the North and South of Nigeria.
