Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Independent National Electoral Commission has firmly ruled out any extension of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise, insisting that the registration window closes at midnight on Sunday, July 26, 2026, despite mounting pressure from opposition political parties and civil society organisations who warn that millions of eligible Nigerians could be excluded from the 2027 general elections. In a final notice issued on Saturday, the commission urged those yet to register to take advantage of the remaining hours, with designated registration centres operating from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the final day. "Your future won't wait. Neither should you. The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ends Sunday, 26 July 2026," the commission stated.
INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna, in an interview with Punch, stressed that the decision to close the registration was non-negotiable, explaining that the electoral body must begin the critical process of cleaning the data already collected to produce a credible voters' register. "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," Haruna said. He explained that the commission's Information Technology team and Voter Registration Department would immediately deploy the Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and remove multiple registrations before the provisional voters' register is displayed for public scrutiny. "We have this automatic biometric system that will check whether somebody has registered more than once. They will publish the register for claims and objections," he added.
The opposition, however, has intensified its demand for an extension, arguing that the early closure would disenfranchise millions of Nigerians. The National Publicity Secretary of the Taminu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ini Ememobong, said many Nigerians are discouraged due to lack of confidence in INEC's ability to conduct free, fair and credible elections. "Unless INEC clearly demonstrates that it is impartial and capable of conducting credible elections, it will continue to have a negative impact on participation," he said. The National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, Bolaji Abdullahi, argued that voter registration should not be tied to specific timelines, stressing that Nigerians should have unrestricted access to the registration process. Similarly, the Labour Party's National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, faulted the planned closure, arguing that the exercise was designed to be continuous and should remain open to accommodate eligible Nigerians, including those who would attain voting age before the elections. "The name of the exercise is Continuous Voter Registration, and we should start with the name and allow people who have an interest in participating in the election to register," Ifoh said. "It is only in Nigeria that electoral umpires put barriers in place to keep people from participating," he added.
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, also urged INEC to extend the registration to the latest practical date before the 2027 elections, citing a 2022 Federal High Court judgment that held that voter registration should continue until 90 days before a general election. "Every day, more young Nigerians attain the age of 18 and become constitutionally eligible to vote. They are not just our future; they are stakeholders in our present. It would be unfortunate if many of them were denied the opportunity to exercise their civic responsibility simply because the registration process closed long before the elections," Obi said.
Despite the opposition's outcry, INEC has maintained that the registration exercise must close to allow the commission to complete several critical activities before the elections. Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Dayo Oketola, said the decision was in line with constitutional and legal provisions and necessary to pave the way for preparations ahead of the 2027 general elections. He dismissed concerns that the closure would disenfranchise eligible Nigerians, stating that the commission had embarked on extensive nationwide voter education and awareness campaigns to encourage participation. Oketola added that allowing voter registration to continue indefinitely would disrupt the commission's preparations.
The commission disclosed that it had registered 6,885,330 new prospective voters across three phases of the CVR exercise as of July 25, 2026. However, Haruna noted that the final number of newly registered voters would only be known after biometric verification and the claims and objections process. "So, it's after all that has been done that we will have a final figure, which we will now add to the existing 93 million or so. That will then become the voters' register," he said. With the registration window closing at midnight, millions of Nigerians who have not yet registered face the prospect of being excluded from the 2027 electoral process, a reality that opposition parties and civil society groups have described as a threat to the credibility of Nigeria's democracy.
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