Anxiety Over Continuous Voter Registration, PVC Collection

The country’s general election will take place next year. Just as the quest of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to increase the pool of registered voters nationwide has continued to gather momentum,

Recall that INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, stated that the Commission is expected to register 20 million Nigerians before the end of the voters’ registration.

The INEC chairman corroborated the statement when he said that Nigerians who are currently registering in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, will get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) by October 2022.

Speaking during the #YouthVoteCountMega Concert in Abuja recently, Yakubu said that the concert at the Old Parade Ground so far saw the registration of 14,000 Nigerians.

He also noted that the Commission intended to capture the youth segment of the population that has crossed the age of 18 years since the 2019 elections.

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“Our hope is that unlike the 14.2 million we registered in the previous exercise, we are targeting a minimum of 20 million registrants this time. It will take the number of registered voters to about 100 million,” he said.

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Yakubu, earlier during the year announced the creation of 56,827 new polling units. However, for residents of Koroduma One Man Village, one of the fastest-growing communities in Karu, they argued that they might be disenfranchised from voting because they don’t have a PVC registration centre in the community.

“Yes the Commission has allocated polling units to the community, but nothing seems to have changed. We don’t have PVCs. How do you expect us to vote when we don’t have voters card,” said an aspirant for the youth leader position in the community, Obeya Linus.

He alleged the INEC official always complain about the shortage of machines and equipment for the registration.

Obeya stressed the need for INEC to ensure that international best practices are maintained during the CVR registration to ensure that Nigerians are not disenfranchised.

“Besides this, stakeholders in the community are not fully involved in the registration process, there is a huge communication gap in the registration process, so the sensitisation is still very poor here,” he added. Also, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi said the comment made by the FCT REC about the collection of PVCs was not properly understood.

“The correct thing is that PVCs of those who registered between January this year and the deadline to be announced soon, will be produced and made available for collection from October this year. The collection will go on for a week before the 2023 General Election,” he said.

A public affairs analyst James Uneze lamented that despite campaign and exposure most youths have refused to take part in the electoral process by registering for their PVC.

He added that, illiterates have their PVCs yet the literates and well-exposed Nigerians don’t have PVCs. “Worst thing to justify that you don’t have a PVC is that your vote won’t count,” he said.