INEC clears 2.8m voters for Anambra governorship election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the final register of voters for the Anambra state governorship election on November 8.

Sam Olumekun, INEC’s national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, made the announcement in a statement on Thursday after the commission‘s meeting in Abuja.

According to Oumekun, 168,187 residents registered as new voters during the continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise held across 326 wards from July 8 to 20, 2025.

He said after a clean-up of the data using the automated biometric identification system (ABIS), 27,817 cases of multiple or invalid registrations were removed.

“Consequently, the figure for new registrants now stands at 140,370 while valid applications for transfer into the State is 5,983, making a total of 146,353 new voters,” the statement reads.

He said prior to the exercise, Anambra had 2,656,437 registered voters. With the addition of new valid registrants, the state now has 2,802,790 eligible voters on the roll.

The commissioner noted that Idemili north has the highest number of voters with 246,318 (8.79 percent), followed by Awka south with 216,611 (7.73 percent) and Ogbaru with 188,016 (6.71 percent).

Dunokofia and Anambra west have the lowest voter figures with 83,580 (2.98 percent) and 71,332 (2.55 percent) respectively.

“We wish to assure new voters in Anambra State, as well as those who applied for transfer or replacement of their lost or damaged Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), that their cards will be ready for collection well ahead of the Governorship Election holding in the next 63 days on Saturday, 8th November 2025,” the statement reads.

REGISTRATION OF NEW PARTIES

On political party registration, Olumekun noted that INEC has received 171 letters of intent from associations seeking recognition, with 19 of these received since its last update.

He added that changes in interim leadership by some associations, often due to defections to other groups or existing political parties, were also causing delays.

“We wish to appeal to all the associations that submitted letters of intent to remain patient as we finalise the process. We also urge them to avoid frequent changes to their logos, acronyms and addresses or one association submitting multiple requests,” the statement reads.

“We wish to reassure the associations that the Commission will treat all applications fairly while urging them to assist the process by remaining consistent.”