By Okechukwu Onuegbu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Monday, revealed that 76.5% of people who registered for permanent voters cards between June 28, 2021 to July 31, 2022 last continuous voters registration exercise (CVR) nationwide were youth.
The INEC National Commissioner, Information and Publicity, Mr Festus Okoye, who made the call in Awka, Anambra State capital, during an engagement meeting with Identified youth groups on the role of Youth Ahead of 2023 polls, charged them to utilise their numerical strengths to elect credible leaders.
Okoye also urged the youth to shun 'unscrupulous elements in the society' who according to him, had been using some of them to advance selfish agenda during elections.
He reassured that the general elections would be technological driven, even as he implored eligible voters who were yet to obtain their Permanent Voters' Cards (PVC) to quickly visit collection centres located across eight thousand, eight hundred and nine registration areas.
In a remark, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra state, Dr Queen Elizabeth Agwu, described youth as industrious and productive generation, urging them to utilise the opportunity created by, "Not Too Young To Run bill" to effect positive change.
Earlier in a lecture entitled, "2023, Menace of Vote Trading: Youth as Vanguard for Impactful Change", a Guest Lecturer, Professor Chuka Enuka, identified poverty and unemployment as the major cause of vote buying and vote selling, describing it as a cankerworm that had eaten deep into the nation's fabrics.