The North-West and South-West geopolitical zones are leading in voter registration with 22,672,373 and 18,332,191 eligible voters, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed.

An update published on the INEC website showed that 96,303,016 people had registered before the voter registration was suspended on July 31. 

In 2019, the commission registered 84,004,084 voters. The 2022 INEC data indicated an increase of 12,298,932 registrations ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The North-West, comprising seven states (Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara), have 22,672,373 eligible voters. The South-West region comprising Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti followed closely with a total of 18,332,191 voters.

The North-Central came third with 15,680,438 registered voters, a little above the South-South with 15,299,374. The North-East has 12,820,363 voters registered so far. The South-East has 11,498,277 eligible voters.

The INEC data further showed that more than 50 per cent (8,854,566) of the 12,013,068 new voters registered in person, and others (3,444,378) registered online.

Also, the over 12 million new voters comprised 6,074,078 males and 6,224,866 females.

Although civil rights groups and the ruling All Progressives Congress pushed for the extension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), INEC suspended the enrolment after the July 31 deadline.

INEC had initially extended the CVR from June 30 to July 31.