The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said that 2.7 million double registrations have been weeded out of the last Continuous Voters Registration exercise conducted by the commission, while new Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, will be made available in November.
The Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu said this at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington DC in the United States.
Yakubu said about 50% of the new PVCs are ready but yet to be distributed to collection centres.
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He raised concerns about the rising levels of insecurity across the country, saying that the commission has its “fingers crossed”.
In his words, “It is a perennial issue because, at the end of the day, it is not new, but the dimension of the insecurity is new, in the sense that in the past, it was localised, or confined to a particular part of the country, the Northeast, but now, it is more widespread”.
“We are keeping our eyes, particularly, on the North-West, and the South-Eastern part of the country. Because Elections are conducted by human beings.
“We worry about the security of our officials, materials, and even the voters themselves.
“Without them, elections cannot be conducted. ”
“We have spoken to the security agencies, and they have assured us that the situation will improve before the elections. So, fingers crossed.”
(Editor: Ifeanyi Mark)
