INEC registers over 1.6m voters in FCT, resumes CVR in Anambra

The Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee has printed and introduced the revised Register of Voters for the Federal Capital Territory forward of the February 21, 2026, Space Council Election, with the overall variety of registered voters rising to 1,680,315.

This was contained in a press release launched by the  INEC Director of Voter Schooling and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, on Wednesday.

Eta-Messi, who acknowledged that the presentation passed off in Abuja, throughout a stakeholders’ assembly with political events, the place the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the FCT, Malam Aminu Idris, described the train as a essential constitutional requirement within the Fee’s preparations for the election.

The REC recalled that INEC resumed the nationwide Steady Voter Registration train on August 18, 2025, starting with on-line pre-registration and adopted by bodily registration nationwide from September 29, 2025.

He defined that, in compliance with Part 9(6) of the Electoral Act, 2022, the CVR was suspended within the FCT on October 12, 2025, to permit the Fee to revise the Register of Voters for the Space Council Election.

He acknowledged, “The revision course of, carried out pursuant to Part 10(6) of the Electoral Act, concerned biometric de-duplication of the register, its show for claims and objections, and the compilation of a supplementary checklist arising from the train.”

He famous that the revised register now supersedes all earlier registers.

Malam Idris disclosed, “The whole variety of registered voters within the FCT elevated from 1,570,307 recorded in 2023 to 1,680,315, including that detailed statistics have been made out there to political events on the assembly.”

He additional briefed stakeholders on the Fee’s stage of preparedness for the February 21, 2026 Space Council Election, which is able to fill 62 councillorship seats and 6 chairmanship positions throughout the FCT.

He listed actions already undertaken by the Fee to incorporate the monitoring of celebration primaries, publication of ultimate lists of candidates, graduation of marketing campaign monitoring, receipt of non-sensitive supplies, activation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, voter training and sensitisation, stakeholder engagement and collaboration with safety companies by means of the Inter-Company Consultative Committee on Election Safety.

The REC urged political events and candidates to maintain the prevailing peaceable environment within the FCT and intensify voter mobilisation forward of the election.

He additionally introduced that Everlasting Voter Playing cards for newly registered voters, in addition to those that utilized for switch or updates throughout the CVR train, had been delivered to the FCT, noting that the Fee would announce the graduation date for PVC assortment sooner or later.

In a associated improvement, INEC has resumed the Steady Voter Registration train in Anambra State.

The CVR train was suspended on July 20, 2025, to allow the Fee to wash up the voters’ register, in addition to produce and distribute Everlasting Voter Playing cards forward of the November 8, 2025, governorship election within the state.

The resumption of the CVR train on the Anambra State workplace and the 21 Native Authorities Space places of work is anticipated to supply eligible voters with the chance to register, replace their information, apply for alternative of misplaced or broken PVCs, and switch their voting places forward of the 2027 Common Election.