The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has maintained that the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise will officially conclude today (Sunday), declining appeals from civil society groups and opposition parties for a deadline extension over fears of mass voter disenfranchisement ahead of the 2027 general elections.
According to reports by Sunday PUNCH, while opposition coalitions and advocacy groups continue to push for additional time to capture unregistered citizens, INEC has called on all eligible Nigerians to complete their enrollment before the registration portal closes today.
In a note posted on its X account on Saturday, the commission announced that the exercise would culminate today, July 26, with specified registration centers available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The commission stated that, “Your future won’t wait. Neither should you. The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ends Sunday, 26 July 2026.”
The electoral body further noted that citizens can complete their registration either virtually via its online CVR portal or in person at designated commission centers across the country.
Under the current Electoral Act, voter enrollment and profile modifications must cease 90 days prior to polling day to facilitate data auditing, card production, and general operational logistics.
The legislation further obligates the authority to display the voter list for public verification and disputes during this window, giving citizens the opportunity to flag errors or omissions to safeguard the integrity of the definitive register.
INEC rules out extension
The INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, further noted that the commission would not extend the deadline, adding that the registration exercise had to close to allow the electoral body to begin cleaning the data already collected.
“By midnight on Sunday, voter registration ends. There won’t be any extension. There are so many things that we need to do at the back end. We have to draw a line; otherwise, we won’t be able to produce a clean copy of what has been posted,” he said.
Haruna explained that the commission’s Information Technology team and the Voter Registration Department would begin processing the data as soon as the registration window closed.
He stated that INEC would use its Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and eliminate duplicate registrations before displaying the provisional voters’ register for public review.
Read Also: INEC Extends Voter Registration, Launches Self-Service for First-Time Voters
INEC registers 2.9m Nigerians in CVR Phase III
Official records released by the commission and reviewed by Sunday PUNCH indicate that 2,970,257 eligible voters were registered during Phase III, Week Nine of the ongoing CVR exercise.
This figure reflects all successfully processed online applications and in-person enrollments logged up to July 17, 2026.
However, in compliance with Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022, voter registration was temporarily suspended across Osun State due to its impending gubernatorial election.
Breakdowns from the data show that online applications made up 33.79 percent (970,865) of total completions, whereas physical enrollments accounted for the remaining 66.21 percent (2,000,092) nationwide.
Women represented the majority of new voters at 52.57 percent (1,561,765), with male registrants comprising 47.43 percent (1,409,192).
Demographically, youth participation drove the surge, as citizens between the ages of 18 and 34 constituted 67.43 percent (2,003,183) of the overall numbers.
