The much-awaited Nigerian presidential election is here and will be kicking off in less than 24 hours. Nigerians will head to the polls to elect President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor.
Being the world’s first big election of 2023, the election’s impact will reverberate worldwide, as Nigeria remains Africa’s biggest economy and most populous black country.
18 Political Parties/Presidential candidates
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, disclosed that 18 political parties will participate in the February 25 election.
Among them are Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP; and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP.
Registered Voters
The current voter register contains 93,469,008 voters according to the electoral body, INEC.
Collected PVCs
INEC also disclosed that a total of 87,209,007 PVCs were collected as of 5 February, when the exercise ended.
The implication is that over 87.2 million voters would decide the fate of the 18 presidential candidates.
Uncollected PVCs
There were 6,259,229 uncollected voter cards. These cannot vote in either of the elections, Presidential/National Assembly or Gubernatorial/State Assemblies.
Polling Unit
There are 176,846 Polling Units where elections will be taking place. Polling Unit is the smallest unit where elections are held.
Registration Areas/Wards
The Polling Units are scattered across the country in 8,809 wards. These are also known as registration areas. A collection of Polling Units make up a Ward/Registration Area.
Local Government Area
The Registration Areas/Wards are found at the local government level across the nation, which are 774 in number.
Electoral Constituencies
There are 1,491 Electoral Constituencies in the country. These are electoral units from which each member of the National/State Assemblies come from.
It is the function of the INEC to delimitate the country into electoral constituencies for easy representation in the National/State Assemblies.
Contestants
A total of 15,331 contestants will be participating in the February 25 and March 11 elections.