Nothing Wrong With Online Pre-Registration of Voters — INEC

By Anayo Akwitti

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed insinuations questioning the credibility of its recently published figures on online pre-registration of voters, insisting the process is transparent, consistent with past trends, and backed by verifiable data.

The Commission’s response followed a statement credited to the spokesperson of a political party(ADC), which alleged that the number of pre-registrants in Osun State defied “historical patterns and demographic realities.”

INEC, in a statement issued on Thursday by Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, described the claim as “false and misleading,” stressing that Osun has historically led the nation in online pre-registration numbers.

According to Oyekanmi, INEC had rolled out the online pre-registration of voters on 18th August 2025, with in-person registration commencing on 25th August 2025. Within the first week, a total of 1,379,342 Nigerians pre-registered online, with Osun State topping the list at 393,269, followed by Lagos State with 222,205, and the Federal Capital Territory with 107,682.

“The pattern in Osun is not unusual,” Oyekanmi explained. “When the Commission first launched online pre-registration on 28th June 2021, Osun State consistently led. For example, within two weeks, Osun had 154,893 pre-registrations, and by the eighth week, the figure had risen to 365,412. At the conclusion of the exercise in April 2022, Osun recorded 708,782 pre-registrations, ahead of all other states.”

He emphasized that every online pre-registrant is required to appear in person at designated centres for biometric capture before being added to the voters’ register.

“During the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, INEC released data weekly and subjected the preliminary register to public scrutiny for claims and objections. The Commission also deployed its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to detect and eliminate multiple registrations. These safeguards ensured that only eligible citizens were added to the voters’ roll,” he said.

Oyekanmi further recalled that the CVR exercise before the 2019 General Election added over 14 million new voters, raising the national register from about 70 million to 84,004,084, while the 2021/2022 exercise produced an additional 9.4 million voters, bringing the register to 93,469,008 for the 2023 General Election.

He reiterated that INEC has no business speculating on why some states record higher registration figures than others, noting that its constitutional duty is to ensure that only qualified Nigerians are duly captured.

“The Commission will continue to provide updates on the progress of the ongoing online and in-person CVR. We appeal to citizens to avoid conjectures when they can rely on authentic and verifiable data from our official records,” Oyekanmi stated.