If the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) insists on the use of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) only in the upcoming national elections, chances are that a sizeable percentage of voters will be disenfranchised. This is even as the electoral body claims to have registered over 68 million voters already for the election. With six weeks to the opener – the presidential election – many are yet to register, let alone get the PVC. Even those who have registered are having a really hard time getting their PVCs.
By INEC’s arrangement, the process of getting the voter card is designed, in our view, to punish prospective voters. This allegation may not be hard to prove. For instance, in a municipal town like the Federal Capital City, Abuja, there are only six collection points. At one of those points visited, there were only two INEC staff members attending to thousands of people, giving the impression that they were assigned the job as a punitive measure. The pressure from the teeming crowd would have overwhelmed even the most hardworking. At a point, one of the staff, to ease off the heat, announced that anyone who registered after 2011 should not bother to wait. What that implies is that people who came of age after that date, changed address, or for one reason or the other are presently registering for the first time, are not likely to be captured in the exercise and therefore may not vote. This runs counter to the grain of the campaign urging every Nigerian to be part of the electoral process.
In light of this development, stakeholders, who include the House of Representatives, state governors and other interest groups, are urging INEC to rethink its policy of using the PVC in this election. The reason is obvious – the commission is not ready and must develop the humility to accept that reality. In making this assertion, we are neither unmindful of the challenges confronting INEC nor unappreciative of its efforts to grapple with the situation. The fact is that the use of PVCs for voting in an election as complex as the one ahead of us is not yet a tested procedure and may fail. We had expected the electoral body to have tested it in a less cumbersome election, learn from any inadequacies thrown up and fine-tune them for this election. Using this all-important election as a pilot process for the procedure is ill advised.
We understand the commission’s commitment to a free and fair election, but it must work within the ambit of what is realisable. We are, invariably, compelled to urge INEC to drop the PVCs and revert to the Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs), or allow voters use whichever of the two they have. It is, in our opinion, more sensible for the commission to err on the side of caution.
