The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed 7,746 deceased voters from Nigeria’s national voter registry across all states and the Federal Capital Territory as of December 2022.
Victoria Etta-Messi, in charge of voter education and publicity at INEC, disclosed this information on Thursday, adding that INEC regularly conducts a comprehensive cleanup of voter records before each general election.
During their December 2024 assessment of the 2023 elections, they highlighted difficulties in maintaining the accuracy of the voter list despite successfully adding over 12 million new voters. A significant challenge is the removal of deceased voters since Nigeria does not have comprehensive death records.
“Issues with official death records continue to pose challenges for INEC in eliminating deceased registrants.” The body said.
Another concern was the presence of duplicate registration, for which INEC employed a system known as Automated Biometric Identification to detect and eliminate nearly 2.8 million invalid registrations, representing approximately 22.6% of all new registrants.
INEC also observed a decline in voter turnout. In the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections, just 27.5% of registered voters participated, a decrease from 35.6% in 2019.
Some analysts believe this decline may be linked to the voter list, including individuals who have died or relocated.
To address these issues, experts have recommended that INEC collaborate more closely with other governmental bodies, such as the National Population Commission and the National Identity Management Commission.
