INEC clears 1.68m voters for FCT area council election

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it has cleared a total of 1,680,315 registered voters to participate in next month’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council election.

The commission equally announced that it has published and presented the revised register of voters for the FCT poll scheduled for February 21.

While presenting the register in Abuja on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ meeting with political parties, the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Malam Aminu Idris, described the exercise as a critical constitutional requirement in the commission’s preparations for the election.

Aminu, giving a further breakdown, announced that the figure was an increase from 1,570,307 recorded in 2023, explaining that the detailed statistics were made available to political parties at the meeting.

The REC recalled that INEC resumed the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on August 18 last year, beginning with online pre-registration and followed by physical registration nationwide from September 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 last year to allow the commission revise the register of voters for the council poll.

According to him, the revision process, carried out pursuant to Section 10(6) of the Electoral Act, involved biometric de-duplication of the register, its display for claims and objections, and the compilation of a supplementary list arising from the exercise. He noted that the revised register now supersedes all previous registers.

Malam Idris said: “The total number of registered voters in the FCT increased from 1,570,307 recorded in 2023 to 1,680,315. The detailed statistics has been made available to political parties at the meeting.

“The commission’s level of preparedness for the February council election, which will fill 62 councillorship seats and six chairmanship positions across the FCT. The activities already undertaken by the commission include the monitoring of party primaries, publication of final lists of candidates, commencement of campaign monitoring, receipt of non-sensitive materials, activation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), voter education and sensitisation, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration with security agencies through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES),” he said.

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 Permanent Voter Cards (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, noting that the commission would announce the commencement date for PVC collection in due course.