Edo Guber Election: INEC Presents Official Voters’ Register To Participating Political Parties

By Bassey Bassey

Ahead of the September 21, 2024, gubernatorial election in Edo State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday in Benin City, presented the Certified True Copy of the updated Voters’ Register to the political parties participating in the election.

The State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, disclosed that the updated Voters’ Register, shows that there are 2,629,025 intending voters in the state.

Dr. Onuoha, stated that the commission decided to issue the Voters’ Register to the political parties for the election in line with the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022 as amended.

He disclosed that prior to the recently Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) in the state, the total number of registered voters during the 2023 general election in the state was 2,501,081.

According to him, “In line with Section 10(4) of the Electoral Act, 2022 as amended, today (Tuesday), we shall be giving you (political parties representatives), the Official Register of Voters in Edo State and this is the 10th item in the timetable and schedule of activities for Edo State.

“Recently, we did continuous voters registration and the cards have been printed and given to us. In Edo, we have a total of 119, 206 new registered voters

“In addition, we have 8,847 transferred from their registration centres within the state.as provided by the law. The commission has updated the records of 4, 808 voters that applied for correction of names, addresses, and date of birth from their previous registrations.

“We also replaced the 5,406 lost , damaged PVCs. Put together, 184, 436 voters of various categories were served by the commission during the last CVR in Edo State”.

A breakdown of the voters registration showed that, Ikpoba-Okha has the highest number of registered voters with 400,495, closely followed by Oredo Local Government Area with 357,371 Voters, while Igueben Local Government Area has the least registered voters with 52,000.

Dr. Onuoha, who assured that INEC is fully ready for the conduct of the election, added that the commission would commence the issuance of Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) registered during the last CVR from August 22, 2024, through to September 8, 2024.

Also speaking, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Edo, Delta and Ondo States, Prof. Rhoda Gamus, noted that the commission is committed to conducting free, fair and credible election in Edo.

“The commission is committed to keeping strictly to the date and details in the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2024 governorship election in Edo State.

“You can recall that the commission published the national register voters on the 11th, January, 2023 which was used for the conduct of the 2023 general election. The same register cannot be used this time because many people have come of age and we cannot leave them out.

“That is why the commission as part of its preparation for the election, we conducted the Continuous Voter’s Registration exercise in Edo State on 27th of May to 9th June 2024 in line with Section 9 (6) of the 2022 Electoral Act which permits the commission”, she posited.

Mr Timidi Wariowe, the commission’s head of department, Voter Education and Publicity in Edo State, also took time to explain the activities and challenges of the commission during the period of voters’ registration, the transferred in and out of the state, the defaced cards, those updated, damaged cards, those that fell under multiple registration, have all now been sorted out.

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