2023: 187 Million Ballot Paper To Be Printed For Presidential Poll – INEC

Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, estimates that there are currently 93.5 million registered voters in Nigeria, adding that 9,518,188 new voters were added to the already-existing list of 84,004,084 voters.

On Friday, November 17, Okoye said that 93.5 million ballots will be used in the presidential election on February 25, 2022, and the remaining 93.5 million would be used in a run-off election if there was a tie. He said that states will face the same restrictions.

He claims that due to the logistical challenges of finding printers at short notice as well as the Commission’s decision to print 187 million ballots for the presidential elections.

The general election in 2023 will have 18 political parties, and the legislation has specified how candidates and a presidential candidate in Nigeria would emerge, according to Okoye.

“Because of the limited time on the Commission and by the law; in case a candidate does not emerge from the first ballot, the Commission prints ballots for run-off elections (second election) when we are printing ballots for the main election.

“In other words, if 93million Nigerians are on the ballot for the presidential election, we will print 93million ballots for the first election and at the same time, print 93million ballots for the run-off election in case a winner does not emerge from the first ballot.

“If at the end of the day, there is no runoff, when election petitions are disposed of, the Commission will destroy the 93million ballots printed for the runoff. This is because the law gives the Commission just 21 days within each to engage in reverse logistics and conduct a runoff election in case there is no winner.

“Moreover, as of the time of the conduct of the Presidential election, the governorship elections and State Assembly elections are still pending. So for the governorship election, the Commission will print at least run-off ballots for four governorship elections in case we have challenges in terms of a winner not emerging in the first ballot in some of the states of the federation.