Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has assured Nigerians that the Permanent Voters Cards will be ready and available for pick up by November for new registrants 2022.
The Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this known in a keynote address delivered at an event organized by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) at the NED Headquarters, Washington DC, Unites States of America, on Tuesday 11th October 2022.
According to Prof. Yakubu, Nigerians have been worried and asking the Commission, when their PVCs would be out especially with the recent cleanup of the voters register and just barely 136 days to the 2023 general elections.
The Chairman in his speech assured Nigerians that PVCs will be available for new registrants by next month – November. “We are looking at early to the middle of the month to make the cards available. We have already printed over 50 percent of the cards but we haven’t delivered them to the states yet”.
“As we clean the data, we also print the cards. Nigerians who have registered should be rest assured that they will have their cards ahead of the general election. We also need to do so in good time because the law now requires us to publish the number of cards collected per polling unit”, he added.
The Chairman also noted that the Commission has completed the cleaning up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) that combines the fingerprint and the facial authentication of registered voters to make room for transparent and credible elections.
“Those who registered twice, those who are underage or those who had no reason to register as provided by law have been weeded out. The exercise was completed a few days ago. We have not even shared the information with Nigerians, but we have 2.7 million invalid registrants and they have been weeded out. We’ll continue to take steps necessary to protect the integrity of the Register of Voters because it is fundamental to the conduct of elections. There can’t be credible elections without a credible register of voters”.
On the issue of inclusivity, the Chairman assured that all necessary modalities would be put in place to ensure that no group is disenfranchised.
“We have created a new Department of Gender and Inclusivity in the Commission and within the limits of available resources, we have provided Assistive Devices for Persons with Disabilities, such as Braille Ballot Guide and Magnifying Glasses for the vision impaired and those living with Albinism. This was specifically recommended by the Albino Foundation.
He also pointed out that, “We work with the Albino Foundation to provide Magnifying Glasses and we work with Inclusive Friends to provide the Braille Jacket, which has the acronyms of political parties in Braille. The person who needs it inserts the ballot paper in the jacket and such person can vote unassisted. But for those who don’t read braille, they can still bring trusted relations on election day.”
Also, the Chairman noted that the Commission has made available posters for individuals who are hard of hearing because they also complained that “INEC provided Braille Jackets and Magnifying Glasses for the visually impaired and they also need not to be disenfranchised because of their disability. So, the Commission created posters for them which they can read on election day.
The Chairman also reiterated the Commission’s commitment to the Youths demographic as majority of Registrants for the 2023 elections are youths.
“Their enthusiasm is great. Majority of our registrants, 71 percent, are young people between the ages of 18 and 34. So, we are excited just as they are excited. The more we introduce technology, the more they get excited”, he said.
Professor Mohamoud Yakubu expressed few concerns about the 2023 general election. He stated that, “I’ll be the last to say there are no concerns. The first concern is the perennial issue of insecurity in different parts of the country, compounded by the traditional issues of thuggery during elections organized by some of the political actors. I say it is a perennial issue because at the end of the day, it is nothing new”.
“However, the dimension of the insecurity is concerning in the sense that in the past, it was localized or confined to a particular part of the country, the northeast. But now it is more widespread and we are keeping our eyes particularly on the northwest and the southeastern parts of the country.”
“Elections are conducted by human beings. We worry about the security of our officials, voters and the materials to be deployed. Without them, we cannot conduct elections. We have spoken to the security agencies, they have assured us that the situation will improve before the elections. So, fingers crossed. Those who are supposed to secure the environment have assured us that they will secure the environment for us to conduct elections. Our responsibility is to conduct elections”,he added.