The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says presently, there are 114,531 old Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs that have not been collected in Borno State, North-East Nigeria. Similarly, 13,715 new ones have also not been collected by registered voters.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mohammed Ibrahim, made this known while briefing journalists on the level of preparation of the Commission in the state, for the 2023 general elections.
Ibrahim said the Commission has approved that rigorous collections will start at the local government offices, from Monday, December 12, 2022 to January 15, 2023.
According to him, “from 6th January 2023 to January 5th, 2023, the distribution will be devolved to Registration Areas or Wards level. The exercise will be reverted to the Local Government Area offices on the 16th January 2023 to 22nd January 2023 when it will be suspended until after the general elections.”
Ibrahim said owners of uncollected PVCs will be contacted to go and collect their PVCs at definite locations from 9am to 3pm daily, including Saturdays and Sundays.
ALSO READ: 2023: INEC assures U.N of credible polls
The Resident Electoral Commissioner said “…there will be no accreditation and voting without PVCs and no electronic voting during the forthcoming elections. However, there will be electronic accreditation and transmission of election results.”
Ibrahim said, people can view in real-time, the election results, via INEC Result Viewing Portal.
He also said that there will be migration of some voters from congested polling units to nearby uncongested ones.
He also added that a total of 17,948 security personnel are expected to provide security at the various election points, including patrols in Borno State. These will exclude the Army that will give security at the periphery, as well as escorts to inaccessible Local Government Areas.
He assured of the Commission’s commitment to free, fair, peaceful, credible and inclusive 2023 elections. Borno State has 27 Local Government Areas, three Senatorial Districts, 10 Federal, and 28 State Constituencies. It has 2,514,228 registered voters, as contained in the preliminary register of voters.
Sixteen political parties fielded candidates in the state for Governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and the State House of Assembly.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
