2019 polls: Voter turnout rises in 19 states
Despite the lowest voter turnout recorded in the last Saturday’s presidential elections, findings have shown that about 19 states have recorded an increase in the number of accredited voters compared to 2015 elections.
The states which recorded an increase in the number of accredited voters are Kaduna, Adamawa, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Osun, Yobe, Ogun, Benue, Edo, Katsina, Taraba, Borno, Kebbi, Sokoto and the FCT.
On the other hand, 18 states whose accredited voters dropped in 2019 compared to 2015 are Abia, Niger, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ondo, Oyo, Bauchi, Lagos, Imo, Plateau, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Zamfara, Cross River, Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers.
The voter turnout national average for the February 23 elections was 35.6 percent, a significant drop from the 43.6 percent recorded during 2015 elections.
Analysis of official figures revealed that 31,746,490 voters were accredited for elections in 2015, but the figure dropped by 2,382,281 in the last Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Only 29,364,209 voters were accredited during the Saturday’s polls out of the 83 million registered voters.
The turn out over the years ranges from 53 percent in 1999 to nearly 70 percent in both 2003 and 2007, and then down to 53 percent in 2011.
The number of registered voters was 57.9 million in 1999; 60 million in 2003; 61 million in 2007; 73 million in 2011; 67 million in 2015, and 83 million in 2019.
The figures of registered voters have been contestable until the adoption of biometric voter registration and card reader machines deployed during elections in 2015 and 2019.
Speaking on the development, a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Mal. Shamsu Abdu, said the issue was not about low-voter turnout but the positive impact of technology that reduced rigging.
“Apart from 2015 and 2019, politicians simply seat in the comfort of their rooms to allocate figures. This is more prominent in the South where you see states like Rivers, Delta and even Anambra producing over one million votes.
“We also have few states in the North where you have such infractions, but the card reader has changed all this. Above all, even though we have more than 120,000 polling units across Nigeria, the electorate have the precise number of those who supposed to vote at every polling unit; so this has also reduced chances of rigging.
“I am therefore not surprised when INEC recorded high number of cancellations; it is not that the people that cast votes made mistakes. It was the politicians that tried to rig that caused the problem by turning in scandalous votes,” he said.
Comments on states with increased voters
In Gombe, the presidential and National Assembly elections witnessed an increase in the total number of accredited voters that cast votes.
A lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Federal University, Kashere, Dr Babayo Sule, said the public enlightenment raised the conscience of many voters who were hitherto reluctant to participate in the elections.
Sule said it was as a result of massive public enlightenment campaigns embarked upon by different stakeholders on radio stations, in mosques, churches and other public places, calling on people to come out and exercise their civic duty.
On her part, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Gombe, Mrs Naomi Joel Awak, said people of the state came out en masse to vote in the presidential election because of their confidence in President Buhari’s administration.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) also witnessed a rise in the number of accredited voters during the 2019 presidential elections with 467,784.
The number shows a 26 per cent increase from 344, 056 voters accredited during the 2015 presidential election in the territory.
Dr Law Mefor, a social psychologist, attributed the rise to the interest shown by the younger ones who just turned 18 as most of them used the opportunity created by the continuous voter registration (CVR) to obtain their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs) and participate in the electoral process.
Dr Mefor, who cited the security challenge in the North as another factor that contributed to the increase in the number of voters as more Nigerians returned to the territory, added that increased voter education and enlightenment by the electoral body could not be overlooked.
A former chairman of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in the FCT, Solomon Ndirang, concurred with Dr Mefor. He said people are more politically enlightened and eager to be part of the process.
A politician in Kaduna State, Murtala Idi, said the events that happened on the political scene between 2015 and 2019 together with increased voter awareness made more people to be eager to vote.
Another resident of Kaduna State, Friday Habu, said some just wanted to make a statement, having seen the performance of the current administration.
In Kogi, an activist and Executive Director, Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Mr Idris Miliki, attributed the increase to the fact that more people were more conscious politically in 2019 and were ready to exercise their franchise.
Miliki also said the increase could also be as a result of the fact that more people who had attained the voting age.
State with low voter turnout
Musa Azare, a political analyst in Bauchi, said some people were still nursing the bitterness following what transpired in most of the party’s primaries especially the bigger political parties like the ruling APC, PDP, NNPP and other parties.
Azare said despite having about 2.5 million registered voters in Bauchi State, the number of people that came out to vote fell drastically.
“People are disillusioned by the way candidates were imposed on them by their parties. Some decided not to vote while others voted selectively,” he said.
A political scientist in Lagos, Dr. Kayode Esuola, attributed the low turnout in the just concluded President and National Assembly elections to uncertainty over the elections.
Esuola of the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos said there was a nationwide tension generated by the election especially following the turbulent primaries conducted by the political parties.
He told Daily Trust that the temperament in 2019 was so high compared to the 2015.
In Oyo state, the total number of accredited voters also dropped.
A chieftan of the Action Democratic Progress (ADP), YSO Olaniyi, blamed the development on voters’ apathy.
Olaniyi, who said electorate were tired of failed promises by politicians, stated that the postponement of the election was another reason many people refused to take part in the elections as many had returned to their base.
The Anambra State chairman of the PDP, Ndubisi Nwobu, attributed the poor voter turnout to the failure of smart card readers that led to the disenfranchisement of many people.