Borno State recorded the highest voter turnout, with 41.18% of its registered voters trooping out to vote during the presidential election despite the insecurity endured by its inhabitants since 2009.
Residents of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, were not deterred by the early-morning explosions on election day, as the voter turnout increased in the state from 28.62% in 2015 to 41.18% in 2019, making it the state with the highest increase in voter turnout compared to what held in 2015.
In Zamfara, which has suffered high levels of violence like Borno, there was an increase in the number of registered voters when 2015 is juxtaposed with 2019. However, there is an 18% decrease in voter turnout.
Besides Borno, only Ekiti and Kogi states recorded increase in voter turnout in 2019, when compared to the figures from 2015, although with a difference of 1%. Kano had a decline in the number of voter turnout from the usual over two million votes to 1,964,751 votes.
Data provided by Civic Media Lab showed that voter turnout was markedly low in the South-South and South-East geopolitical zones of the country.
There was a reduction in the number of voters between 2015 and 2019 from a range of 11% to 47%. In Rivers State, where several incidents of violence were recorded, the number of voters in 2015 was 47% less than in 2019.
There was also decline in the number of those who voted in the northern states of Kebbi, Taraba, Katsina, Yobe, Nasarawa, Abuja, Niger, Jigawa and Kaduna, with all of them recording reductions of 5% and below in comparison to 2015’s presidential polls.
In the South-West region, Lagos State had a low turnout of voters despite the very high number of persons who registered to vote – 6,313,507. However, Oyo State had the highest depreciation in voter turnout, dropping 8% from 39% in 2015 to 31% in 2019.
Ogun State had the lowest percentage of voter turnout in the South-West, with only 25.92% of its registered voters going to the polling booth. Overall, there is an increase in the number of votes cast in the three northern geopolitical zones.
The North-East had 4,786,248 votes compared to that of 2015 which was 3,783,929 votes. The North-Central increased by 487,417 votes when compared to that of 2015. The North-West had an increase from 5,699,105 votes in 2015 to 5,879,091 votes in the 2019 general election. Unlike the Northern area, the Southern area had a decline in the number of voter turnout.
In the South-South, voter turnout reduced from 3,465,109 votes in 2015 to 2,815,348 votes in 2019. In the South-West, there was a drop in people casting their ballots at the presidential and National Assembly elections from 4,539,447 votes in 2015 to 4,365,996, while the South-East reduced from 2,815,348 votes in 2015 to 2,342,740 votes in 2019.
Compared to 2015 when voter turnout stood at 43.65%, according to data figures from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), after final count for the 2019 presidential election, voter turnout was 35.6 per cent of registered voters.
