INEC: We have not printed PVCs for newly registered voters

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it is yet to print the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) of eligible voters who took part in the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise from January 15 to July 31, 2022.

The revelation is coming just days after the electoral body disclosed that over 93.5 million Nigerians are eligible to participate in the upcoming general election as voters.

The revelation was made by INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, while appearing on the Channels Television programme Politics Today on Wednesday night.

What the INEC Spokesman is saying

Okoye explained that the reason the cards are yet to be printed is that INEC has not finished cleaning up the voters’ register. Okoye said:

• “If you are a registered voter, in other words, if you belong to the class of 84 million Nigerians that have already registered, you can track your data in our database.
• “Secondly, if you were one of those that registered with the Commission during the Continuous Voter Registration exercise between the 28th day of June 2021 and the 14th day of January 2022, you can track where your Permanent Voter Card is and you will still be in a position to collect it.
• “But if you register between the 15th day of January 2022 and the 31st day of July 2022, the implication is that you are not yet a registered voter in the true sense of the word because we have just finished the cleaning up of the voters’ register which is still ongoing.
• “So, it is not possible for you to know where your permanent voters’ card is because we are yet to print your permanent voter cards and we are yet to make these permanent voter cards available for the registrants.’’

Dismisses rumour on INEC Chairman removal

Okoye acknowledged that INEC is under pressure to conduct free and fair elections in 2023 and assured that it will be difficult for any politician to compromise the sanctity of the electoral process in next year’s poll.

He also said INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu can only be removed constitutionally if he commits any infraction against his office but dismissed rumours of the removal of the INEC boss.

What you should know

• Earlier this week during the third quarterly meeting with political parties, Yakubu pointed out that over 93.5 million Nigerians are eligible to vote in next year’s election.
• He said that 12.29 million Nigerians successfully completed their registrations as new voters in the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration CVR. However, after a rigorous clean-up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System ABIS, over 2.78 million were identified and removed as ineligible registrants.
• He also stated about 2 weeks ago that INEC will make available the new set of PVCs by November this year.
• Earlier on Wednesday, Yakubu at Third Quarterly Meeting with political parties for the year 2022 in Abuja said 40% of newly registered voters are students whilst 76.5% of the newly registered voters are young people.
• According to Yakubu, 9,518,188 new voters have been added to the existing register of 84,004,084 voters and the preliminary register of voters in Nigeria now stands at 93,522,272.
• INEC had in July suspended the CVR after a one-month extension following the Federal High Court’s dismissal of a suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) which sought an extension of the exercise beyond June 30, 2022.