The Independent National Electoral Commission has listed Kano, Kaduna and
Lagos as the states leading in the collection of Permanent Voter Cards.
The electoral body said it was committed to its earlier position that the
Temporary Voter Cards would not be allowed for voting during the next
general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, in his submission to the Council
of State meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday,
said the commission would not reverse its decision to use PVCs for the
elections in order to enhance the credibility of the polls.
A copy of the submission titled: “Preparations for the 2015 general elections:
Progress report,” presented to the Council of State meeting by Jega stated
that a total of 45,098,876 PVCs had been collected across the country as
of Wednesday.
A document tagged “Attachment 2” attached to Jega’s presentation claimed
that the figure represents 65.81 per cent of the 68,833,476 total number of
registered voters nationwide.
The document indicated that 3,190,417 voters had collected their PVCs out of
the 4,975,701 registered voters in Kano State representing 64.11 per cent of
the registered voters.
In Kaduna State, 2,976,628 voters, representing 87.36 per cent, have
collected their cards out of 3,407,222 registered voters.
In Lagos State, 2,267,039 voters, representing 38.39 per cent, have
collected their PVCs out of 5,905,852 registered voters.
In Katsina State, 2,245,303 voters (79.40 per cent) have collected their
cards out of 2,827,943 registered voters.
Bayelsa State has the least number of voters with PVCs. In that state,
386,125 voters (63.26 per cent) have collected their cards out of 610,373
registered voters.
In Abuja, 464,769 voters (52.73 per cent) have collected their cards out of
881,472 registered voters.
In Ekiti State, 496,536 voters (67.83 per cent) have collected their PVCs
out of 732,021 registered voters.
Jega, however, said the commission would not conduct elections with TVCs
because they (the TVCs) had no chips and could therefore not be authenticated
by card readers.
He added that if TVCs were allowed, millions of people who were involved in
multiple registration and whose names had been removed from voters register
for the next elections would approach polling units on election days, whereas
their names would not be in the register.
The INEC chairman said, “The nation has invested a lot in the Card Readers
and Permanent Voters Cards technology and the commission believes that using
them in the 2015 general elections would confer remarkable transparency and
credibility to the electoral process.
“There have been demands that the commission should revert to the use of
TVCs issued during the 2011 registration and the subsequent Continuous Voters
Registration.
“The TVCs have no chips and therefore cannot be verified or authenticated by
the card readers. Also, there are more than four million cases of multiple
registration; people with TVCs, who have been removed from the certified
register of voters for the 2015 elections.
“Once the use of TVCs is allowed, many of these people would inundate
polling units on election day; their names will not be in the register, and they
would start agitation that they have been ‘disenfranchised’ as was the case
during the Anambra State governorship elections in November 2013.
“In any case, people who collected PVCs no longer have TVCs because they
used them to exchange for PVCs.
“Additionally, a high percentage of voters had to use the attestation forms
provided to collect their PVCs due to loss of TVCs on account of floods,
insurgency, etc.”
Meanwhile, Jega regretted that due to funding constraints, the commission could
not do enough hands-on training for its Presiding Officers and Assistant
Presiding Officers on the technology of the PVCs and card readers.
