The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, published the revised voter register for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), ahead of the February 21 Area Council Election, with a total of 1,680,315 registered voters.

INEC’s director of publicity and voter education, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, in a statement issued in Abuja said that the voter register had been presented to political parties during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja.

Mrs Etta-Messi quoted the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for FCT, Aminu Idris, as describing the exercise as a critical constitutional requirement in the commission’s preparations for the election.

Mr Idris, while speaking at the meeting, recalled that INEC resumed the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) on Aug. 18, 2025, beginning with online pre-registration and followed by physical registration nationwide from Sept. 29, 2025.

He explained that in compliance with Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act, 2022, the CVR was suspended in the FCT on October 12, 2025,  to allow the commission revise the register of voters for the area council election.

The REC said that the revision process, carried out in pursuant to Section 10(6) of the Electoral Act, involved biometric duplication of the register, its display for claims and objections and the compilation of a supplementary list arising from the exercise.

The revised register, according to him, now supersedes all the previous registers.

Mr Idris disclosed that the total number of registered voters in the FCT increased from the 1,570,307 recorded in 2023 to 1,680,315, adding that detailed statistics were made available to political parties at the meeting.

He also briefed stakeholders on the commission’s level of preparedness for the area council election which will fill 62 councillorship seats and six chairmanship positions across the FCT.

Mr Idris listed the activities already carried out by the commission to include: monitoring of party primaries, publication of final lists of candidates and commencement of campaign monitoring.

Others, according to him, are receipt of non-sensitive materials, activation of Bimodal Voter 

Accreditation System (BVAS), voter education, stakeholder engagement and collaboration with security agencies through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).

The REC urged political parties and candidates to sustain the prevailing peaceful atmosphere in the FCT and intensify voter mobilisation ahead of the election.

He also announced that PVCs for newly-registered voters as well as those who applied for transfer or updates during the CVR exercise, had been delivered to the FCT.

Mr Idris stated that INE would announce the commencement date for PVC collection in due course.

In a related development, INEC has resumed the continuous voter registration exercise in Anambra.

INEC had, on July 20, 2025, suspended the CVR exercise to enable it clean up the voters’ register and produce PVCs, ahead of the November 8, 2025 governorship election in the state.

According to INEC, the resumption of the CVR exercise at the Anambra office and the 21 local government area offices is expected to provide eligible voters the opportunity to register and update their records.

The commission added that it would also enable registered voters to apply for replacement of lost or damaged PVCs and transfer their voting locations, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

(NAN)