PVC: 15.5m Nigerians may not vote next month Unless serious steps are taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to distribute the Permanent Voter Cards, about 15,567,219 registered voters may not participate in the February general elections as they are yet to receive the PVCs, less than two months to the elections. According to statistics released by INEC yesterday, of the 54,341,610 PVCs that have been received, 38,774,391 have been distributed, leaving a balance of 15,567,219 PVCs that are yet to be in the hands of their owners. Going by the figures, 71.35 percent of voters have received their PVCs with 28.65 percent still waiting. This scenario has given a lot of concerns to Nigerians as their chances of exercising their franchise looks bleak. Only on Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan gave INEC a marching order to ensure that no Nigerian is disenfranchised in the forthcoming elections because of non-possession of the PVC. The President also asked the commission to maintain absolute neutrality in its conduct of the elections to guarantee the credibility of the outcome. Jonathan, who gave the charge while swearing-in new INEC Commissioner, Prof. Akintola Murtala Salau, urged INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega to ensure that all Nigerians have their PVCs before the elections. Although, INEC Chairman, Prof. Jega has consistently given assurances that all registered voters will get their cards before elections, Nigerians remain skeptical arising from the time frame the commission used in distributing 71.35 percent of the PVCs. As at January of 2015, INEC said that only 19 states had received up to 70 percent of the PVCs both in the first, second and third phases of the distribution while 17 states including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT had received less than 70 percent of the PVCs. The details of INEC distribution of the PVCs were contained in a letter Jega wrote to a media organisation to debunk a report it published on the likely exclusion of most Southerners from participating in the forthcoming elections because they were yet to get the new voter cards. Jega said the document on which the report was based was put in public domain since early December 2014 by INEC. He said the document indicated that after the end of the three-day exercise at the polling unit level, the distribution of PVCs continued at local government offices of INEC. According to him, the differences in levels of turn-out by people for their PVCs was not the making of INEC, since the commission had put in place the same procedure across the country guaranteeing equal access to persons wanting to collect their cards. Peoples Daily
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:37:36 +0000
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