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.
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