General elections must hold – INEC

…Gives election dates as Feb 25, March 11
…Says over 93m Nigerians eligible to vote
…Lagos, Kano lead voter in number of voters

INDEPENDENT National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the forthcoming general election will hold as scheduled.

Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this during his meeting with the leadership of the 18 political parties at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, yesterday.

Explaining that commission does not contemplate any postponement of election dates, contrary to reports credited to an INEC director, Yakubu said no adjustments to the timetable of the 2023 general election is being contemplated.

According to Yakubu, February 25 and March 11 dates for the presidential/national and governorship/state assembly elections respectively remain sacrosanct because the electoral commission closed the window for any adjustments in Abuja while presenting a final list of registered voters to all 18 registered political parties in the race for the 2023 elections.

Also speaking, about 93, 469,008 Nigerians have been registered to vote in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

A breakdown indicates that men constitute 44,414,846 registered voters (or 52.5 percent) while women make up 49,054,162 (or 47.5 percent).

A further breakdown of total registered voters, number of young people between ages 18 and 34 stood at 37,060,399 while elderly voters between ages of 50 and 69 were about 17,700,270.

Also giving a state-by-state analysis of the figure, Yakubu said Lagos tops the list with 7,060,195 registered voters followed by Kano with 5,921,370.