INEC to print 187 million ballot papers, including any reruns

A total of 187 million ballots will be printed, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, said that preliminary voter registration in Nigeria has increased to 93.5 million, with 9,518,188 new voters being added to the already-existing list of 84,004,084 registrants.

Okoye said on Friday, November 17, that 93.5 million ballots will be used for the presidential election on February 25, 2022, and the remaining 93.5 million ballots will be utilized in a runoff if there is a tie. States would be subject to the same, he claimed.

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.

“As of today, 18 political parties will participate in the 2023 general election, and the law has outlined how candidates and a presidential candidate will emerge in Nigeria,” Okoye stated.

“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.