The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed satisfaction with the turnout for Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) collection across the country ahead of the 2023 election.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, attributed the development to mobilization by leaders at different levels.
“The rate of PVC collection varies from one state to the other and from one place to the other. Some of the Resident Electoral Commissioners are sending daily reports to the Commission, some of them are sending reports every two days, and some are sending every week. So, we are still collating these reports.
“The National Commissioners are also supervising the collection of PVCs in the states that they supervise. But as of today, we are really encouraged by the turnout of people coming to collect. Community leaders are mobilizing, market women are mobilizing, religious leaders and traditional leaders are also mobilizing and people are coming out to collect their PVCs,” Okoye said.
The INEC National Commissioner, however, admitted that the Commission is facing challenges in relation to those who don’t know what to do to collect their PVCs.
According to Okoye, INEC did not print PVCs for those who did multiple or double registrations because their old cards are valid.
Those who transferred their PVCs can get the new cards at the local government and registration areas where they want to vote.
Okoye also assured that eligible people in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps have been captured and will vote during the polls. He said this is in line with the Electoral Act.
“We have profiled all the persons in IDP camps. We know the number of persons in IDP camps, and we know the number of IDP camps in various states. So, we are going to configure all the IDP camps into registration areas and all persons who are in IDP camps who want to vote will have an opportunity to vote,” he added.