– As soft copies of voters will be presented to political parties August 20th
From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has urged all the eligible voters in Edo State, who recently registered for their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs), to Personally present themselves and collect their cards.
The Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu stated this during the meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), in Abuja on Monday.
He said INEC would no longer allow any collection of PVCs by proxy as may be the case before.
According to him, “about 184,438 voters of various categories were served by the Commission during the last CVR in Edo State, and they will be issued new voters’ cards (PVCs).
“It is important to emphasise that the Commission’s policy that PVCs must be personally collected by registered voters has not changed. The cards will not be distributed or collected by proxy so that they do not end up in the wrong hands.
“We urge voters who took their time to register during the CVR to also take time to collect their PVCs in person and, most importantly, to come out on Election Day and vote for the party of their choice.
“I am glad to report that all the cards have been printed and delivered to our office in Benin City. From there, they have been handed over to our Electoral Officers (EOs) for collection by voters.
“To ensure a seamless process, the cards will be available for collection in all the 192 Wards in the State where the last CVR took place from Thursday 22nd August 2024 to Monday 26th August 2024 from 9.00am to 5.00pm daily including the weekend.
Thereafter, the collection will continue in our 18 Local Government offices across the State from Wednesday 28th August 2024 to Sunday 8th September 2024 from 9.00am to 5.00pm, including the weekends.
“Detailed information on the dates and location of the 210 centres (192 Wards and 18 LGA offices), has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.
“Furthermore, the Commission has developed a register containing, among other information, the names and photographs of the 184,438 voters to ease the collection of their PVCs. The register has also been uploaded to our website (https://inecnigeria.org/?page_id=13804) to facilitate easy identification and collection of the cards.
“Still as part of our preparations for the Edo State Governorship election, the softcopy of the final and comprehensive register of voters will be presented to each political party fielding candidates in the election by tomorrow Tuesday 20th August 2024 in our State office in Benin City. This is in fulfillment of item 10 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election”, he said.
Prof. Yakubu, equally assured the electorate in Ondo State that action is being taken in respect of the availability of their PVCs for the governorship election holding in November this year saying, “very soon, the Commission will make available detailed arrangement for the collection of PVCs for all categories of voters from the recent CVR in the State”.