Questions have emerged over the credibility of Nigeria’s voter register ahead of the 2027 general elections, following concerns that the official figure of more than 103 million registered voters may include deceased persons and other invalid entries.
The debate follows an announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the national register had grown to approximately 103.4 million voters after the completion of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and biometric verification.
INEC said the latest registration exercise produced 10,772,421 new registrants across three phases conducted between August 2025 and July 2026. The figures were announced as preparations intensified for the next general elections.
However, legal expert and electoral commentator Chidi Anselm Odinkalu has questioned whether the register accurately reflects Nigeria’s population of eligible voters, arguing that weaknesses in the country’s civil registration system make it difficult to verify the figures independently.
One major concern is the limited coverage of birth and death registration in Nigeria. Without reliable records of deaths, electoral authorities face difficulties identifying and removing deceased individuals from the voter database.
Odinkalu also highlighted inconsistencies in historical voter registration figures, pointing to periods when the number of registered voters changed in ways that appear difficult to reconcile with broader population trends.
