The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, has ordered a review of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) records in the South East and the removal of every obstacle slowing the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in the zone. He gave the directive on Tuesday in Enugu at the South East Zonal Interactive Meeting with Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election, according to the Commission’s Daily Bulletin. The Enugu meeting was the third leg of a nationwide readiness tour, following Lagos on September 7 and Kaduna on September 28.
Amupitan said the Commission’s main task in the zone was to review local CVR records and “dismantle every bottleneck affecting Permanent Voters Card PVC distribution.” He added, “Our objective is uncompromising: no eligible citizen who registered should be disenfranchised by administrative or logistical friction.”
The timing leaves little room for delay. INEC’s schedule fixes election days for January 16 and February 6, 2027, across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, involving 176,846 polling units. “The statutory timeline is fixed, and the clock is ticking,” the INEC Chairman told staff.
The register itself has grown considerably since the last general election. INEC puts the National Register of Voters at 103.43 million, about 10 million more than the roughly 93.47 million Nigerians registered for the 2023 polls, an increase of nearly 11 per cent. Amupitan said the three CVR phases conducted under Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2026 added 2,611,266 voters between August and December 2025, 4,121,835 between January and April 2026, and 3,867,997 between May and July 2026.
INEC gives the cumulative total of new registrants as 10,772,421. However, the three phase figures announced by the Chairman add up to 10,601,098, about 171,000 fewer than the stated total. The Commission has not publicly explained the difference, and the final figure remains subject to deduplication through the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
INEC’s breakdown of the register shows men account for 51.75 per cent of voters and women 48.25 per cent. Voters aged 35 to 49 form the largest bloc at 41.83 per cent, while those aged 18 to 34 number 29.78 million, or 28.79 per cent. Lagos has the largest number of registered voters at 7.49 million, followed by Kano with 6.57 million.
The South East’s PVC record has been mixed. INEC’s 2023 data show the five states had about 10.91 million registered voters, of whom 10.40 million collected their cards, a collection rate of about 95.4 per cent. Abia recorded the lowest rate in the zone at 91.9 per cent, leaving 171,626 cards uncollected, while Imo and Enugu had 139,583 and 117,404 uncollected cards respectively. Anambra led the zone at 98.8 per cent.
The Commission’s own experience in Anambra last year offers a pointer to what works. Ahead of the November 2025 governorship election, Amupitan said only 63.9 per cent of registered voters had initially collected their PVCs. After INEC extended collection from October 29 to November 2 and opened centres in all 326 registration areas, the figure rose to 98.8 per cent, with 2,769,137 of 2,802,790 voters collecting their cards.
Complaints have persisted in the zone. In July, the Anambra chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Vincent Ezekwueme, said his group had received many complaints from registrants who found it very difficult to collect their PVCs. He urged INEC to investigate staff accused of frustrating the process. INEC has not yet published a 2026 breakdown of PVC collection rates for the South East.
The Commission is relying on new technology to close the gap. Amupitan said INEC introduced an Online Registration Portal for the first time during the third CVR phase. It has also activated Printable PVC technology under Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act 2026, which he said would ensure that “waiting for months to pick up a voter’s card becomes a relic of the past.” Distribution of Phase I PVCs to local government offices began on October 9, the same day the register was opened for public display.
Amupitan said no INEC Chairman had visited the Enugu office since 1999, describing his presence as a break from what he called remote governance. He said elections are won or lost across the 95 local government areas of the South East, in registration area centres and at polling units. “INEC is not the Chairman in Abuja; INEC is you,” he told staff. The Commission says it will present the final register to political parties on December 15, 2026.