Presidential Election: INEC Report Shows Peter Obi Swept South-East, Others
The Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released performance report of all the four major political parties in the February 25 presidential election in which President Bola Tinubu was declared winner.
It was earlier reported that INEC had finally explained why the result viewing portal (IReV) failed during the February 2023 presidential election.
The election was won by Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came second while Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third.
In the 526 page comprehensive post-mortem report on the 2023 general election released on the first anniversary of the election, the electoral umpire said that going into the election, a cumulative total of 87, 394,106 out of the 93, 469, 008 total registered voters collected their permanent voters card (PVCs) nationwide.
According to the report the election produced the most diverse outcome in recent Nigerian electoral history in terms of party representation in executive and legislative elections nationwide.
Performance according to six geopolitical zones shows that while APC won in the North Central Zone with 38.58%, North-West zone with 39.54%, and South-West with 53.59% while PDP only won North-East zone with 50.67%. LP won South East zone with 87.79% and South South zone with 42.37%.
“Yet, the 2023 General Election produced the most diverse outcome in recent Nigerian electoral history in terms of party representation in executive and legislative elections nationwide. Thus, four (4) political parties produced State Governors, seven (7) secured Senatorial seats, eight (8) won federal constituencies and nine (9) in State seats,” the report said.
“A granular analysis of the results and performance of the leading parties across the country affirms this diversity. The performance of the four (4) leading political parties – APC, LP, PDP and NNPP – in the presidential election across the 6 geopolitical zones in respect of the required 25% threshold to win a state in a presidential election.
“Clearly, across the zones, the performance of the four (4) leading parties shows the diversity and subtlety in the results, attesting to the integrity of both the process and outcome.
“Thus, in the North Central Zone, the APC won 38.58% of the presidential vote, followed by LP with 31.01% and PDP with 25.46%. In the North-East, the PDP won 50.67% of the presidential vote, followed by the APC with 29.16%, and LP with 6.09%.
“In the North-West, the APC won 39.54, followed by the PDP with 34.87%, and LP with 4.08%. In the South-East, LP led with 87.79%, with the APC having 5.71% and the PDP 4.08%.
“Similarly, LP led in the South-South with 42.37%, followed by the APC with 27.99% and the PDP with 26.12%. In the South-West, the APC led with 53.59% followed by the PDP with 22.14% and the LP with 19.97%.”
Section 16(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 empowers the Commission to design, print and control the issuance of Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) to eligible voters whose names appear in the register. Section 41(1) of the Act requires that to vote, the person intending to vote shall present him/herself with his/her voters’ card to a Presiding Officer for the purpose of accreditation at the polling unit where his/her name is In essence, the PVC is a prerequisite for voting, and it is issued following a Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise and after a de- duplication process through the Automated Fingerprints Identification System (ABIS), to establish the validity of the registrant.
At the conclusion of the CVR exercise in each quarter, the Commission undertakes the production of the PVC for each
registered voter and these PVCs alongside the previously uncollected ones before the 2019 General Election were made available for collection from July 2021 to July 2022. Prior to this period, the Commission undertook a comprehensive audit of all uncollected PVCs from 2019 to update its record. Furthermore, the Commission developed a guideline which contained a harmonized procedure for the production, delivery, and collection of PVCs to ensure efficiency, transparency and good record keeping.
In the run up to the 2023 general election, the Commission intensified its efforts to enable registrants to pick up their PVCs by devolving the collection to the RA level from 6th January to 5th February 2023. The collection process is illustrated below.
At the end of the exercise, a cumulative total of 87, 394,106 out of the 93, 469,008 total registered voters were collected their PVCs nationwide.
The state-by-state breakdown of the PVC collection shows that: Abia registered 2,120,808 voters but only 1,949,197 collected their PVCs representing 92%. Adamawa registered 2,196,566 only 1,970,650 collected representing 90%; Akwa Ibom registered 2,357,418 and only 2,198,628 collected representing 93%; Anambra registered 2,656,437 and 2,624,764 collected representing 99%.
“Bauchi registered 2,749,268 voters and 2,721,780 collected representing 99%; Bayelsa registered 1,056,862 and 1,009,895 collected their PVCs representing 96%. Benue State registered 2,777,727 voters and 2,607,141 collected their PVCs representing 94%.
“Borno registered 2,513,281 and 2,447,209 collected their PVCs representing 97%. Cross River registered 1,766,466 and 1,672,810 collected their PVCs representing 95%. Delta registered 3.221.697 voters and 2,989,514 collected representing 93%. Ebonyi registered 1,597,646 voters and 1.551.795 collected their PVCs representing 97%. Edo State Registered 2,501,081 voters and 2,128,288 collected their PVCs representing 85%.
“Ekiti State Registered 987,647 voters and 958,052 collected their PVCs representing 97%; Enugu State Registered 2,112,793 voters and 1,995,389 collected their PVCs representing 94%; Gombe registered 1,575,794 voters and 1,534,954 collected their PVCs representing 97%. Imo registered 2,419,922 voters and 2,280,339 collected their PVCs representing 94%.
“Jigawa State registered 2,351,298 and 2.298,365 collected their PVCs representing 98%; Kaduna registered 4,335,208 and 4,164,473 collected their PVCs representing 96%; Kano registered 5,921,370 and 5,594.193 collected their PVCs representing 94%; Katsina registered 3,516,719 and 3,459,945 collected their PVCs representing 98%; Kebbi registered 2,032,041 and 1,980,171 collected their PVCs representing 97%.
“Kogi registered 1,932,654 and 1,813,741 collected their PVCs representing 94%; Kwara registered 1,695,927 voters and 1,537,275 collected their PVCs representing 91%; Lagos registered 7,060,195 voters and 6,214,970 collected their PVCs representing 88%; Nasarawa registered 1,899,244 and 1,847,752 collected their PVCs representing 97%; Niger registered 2,698,344 voters and 2,633,728 collected their PVCs representing 98%.
“Ogun State registered 2,688,305 voters and 2,278,063 collected their PVCs representing 85%; Ondo registered 1,991,344 voters and 1,729,641 collected their PVCs representing 87%; Osun registered 1,954,800 voters and 1,594,066 collected their PVCs representing 82%; Oyo registered 3,276,675 voters and 2,761,421 collected their PVCs representing 84%. Plateau registered 2,789,528 voters and 2,687,533 collected their PVCs representing 96%.
“Rivers State registered 3,537,190 voters and 3,285,785 collected their PVCs representing 93%; Sokoto registered 2,172,056 voters and 2,097,798 collected their PVCs representing 97%; Taraba registered 2,022,374 and only 1,825,325 collected their PVCs representing 99%; Yobe registered 1,485,146 and 1,437,851 collected their PVCs representing 97%.
“Zamfara State registered 1,926,870 voters and 1,850,055 collected their PVCs representing
96%; FCT registered 1,570,307 voters and 1,476,451 collected their PVCs representing 94%.”
The commission stated in the report that a total of 93,469,008 were registered voters for the election but only 87,209,007 representing 93% collected their permanent voters card before the election.
