This figure was announced in a press release issued on Thursday by the National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun. The updated voter roll comes following a comprehensive registration and verification exercise carried out across all 326 wards in the state between July 8 and July 20, 2025.
According to Olumekun, the registration process recorded 168,187 new applicants. In line with Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the Commission publicly displayed the preliminary list of new registrants for a one-week period—July 26 to August 1—to allow citizens to raise claims and objections.
“In continuation of preparations for the forthcoming Anambra State Governorship Election, the commission carried out voter registration in the 326 Wards across the State from 8th to 20th July 2025. During that period, 168,187 citizens registered as new voters,” Olumekun stated.
“At the end of the registration exercise, the commission earmarked a period of one week (26th July to 1st August) to display the list of new registrants in all the Wards for claims and objections by citizens in the spirit of Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.”
The Commission subsequently subjected the registration data to its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), which is used to detect and remove duplicate or multiple registrations. Following this verification process, 27,817 records were identified as duplicates and deleted from the database.
This left a total of 140,370 valid new registrants. INEC also approved 5,983 transfer requests from voters seeking to relocate their registration to Anambra State. Theseadditions brought the total number of new voters in the state to 146,353.
Before the recent registration update, Anambra had a total of 2,656,437 registered voters. With the new additions, the final register of voters now stands at 2,802,790.
“Consequently, the figure for new registrants now stands at 140,370, while valid applications for transfer into the State are 5,983, making a total of 146,353 new voters,” Olumekun confirmed.
“Before the recent voter registration, Anambra State had 2,656,437 registered voters. With the new registrants, the voters’ roll for the State now stands at 2,802,790.”
INEC also released a breakdown of voter distribution by local government area, indicating that Idemili North has the highest number of registered voters at 246,318, which represents 8.79% of the state’s total. Awka South follows with 216,611 voters (7.73%), and Ogbaru ranks third with 188,016 (6.71%). At the lower end, Dunukofia and Anambra West have 83,580 (2.98%) and 71,332 (2.55%) voters, respectively.
“The distribution of new voters by Local Government Area is uploaded to our website and other official platforms for public information,” the Commission noted.
INEC further assured the electorate that all Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), including those for voters who applied for replacements or transfers, would be ready for collection in good time before the election.
“We wish to assure new voters in Anambra State, as well as those who applied for transfer or replacement of their lost or damaged Permanent Voters Cards, that their cards will be ready for collection well ahead of the governorship election holding in the next 63 days on Saturday, 8th November 2025,” Olumekun added.
The Anambra governorship election is among the off-cycle polls resulting from legal adjustments to Nigeria’s electoral calendar. INEC has published the final list of candidates for the race and officially opened the campaign window.
Sixteen political parties met the deadline for submitting their candidates—May 12, 2025—and are confirmed to be contesting in the November 8 election.
