The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 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. – Punch.
