The Independent National Electoral Commission has dismissed recent claims suggesting that Nigerians have lost confidence in the country’s electoral system, describing such assertions as baseless and unsupported by facts.
In recent weeks, INEC has faced criticism from various Civil Society Organisations and religious organisations, which raised concerns over what they perceive as growing public disillusionment with the electoral process.
Responding to these criticisms on Sunday, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, told The PUNCH that the evidence points in a different direction, highlighting robust public engagement in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
“The notion that Nigerians have lost confidence in the electoral process is more of a myth than a reality, as those who proclaim it lack convincing evidence to support it,” Oyekanmi said.
He pointed to the high level of participation, particularly among young Nigerians, in the current voter registration drive as a strong indicator of public trust.
“On the contrary, the high level of participation by Nigerians, especially the youths, in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration, which began on August 18 this year with online pre-registration, shows that citizens still have confidence in the process,” he added.
INEC launched the new phase of CVR on August 18, encouraging eligible voters to pre-register online before completing the process at designated centres.
The online CVR portal went live at 8:30 a.m. on August 18, 2025, and within just seven hours—by 3:30 p.m. the same day—no fewer than 69,376 Nigerians had already pre-registered. This figure comprised 33,803 males (48.7 percent) and 35,573 females (51.3 percent).
Within one week, by August 24, a total of 1,379,342 had completed their online pre-registration. By September 1, just two weeks into the exercise, that number had surged to 2,532,062.
By September 21, just five weeks since the start of online pre-registration, INEC reported that 5,385,060 Nigerians had uploaded their details to the CVR portal.
In-person registration began on August 25. Within the first week, 72,274 individuals had either completed their online registration or registered in person.
By September 19, week four of the in-person phase, 399,162 online pre-registrants had completed the process, while 365,533 registered entirely through physical means. That brought the total number of completed registrations to 764,695 in one month.
“There is no African country with these types of voter registration figures within one month,” Oyekanmi stated.
He also stressed that the completion of registration must be done in person in accordance with the Electoral Act 2022.
