Friday, December 27, 2024 - The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has announced its plan to destroy millions of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
The PVCs to be destroyed are ones that have remained unclaimed for ten
years.
The proposal is one of 208 recommendations resulting from the
commission’s review of the 2023 general elections.
The policy is aimed at addressing the longstanding issue of unclaimed
PVCs, with over six million cards left uncollected as of the 2023 elections,
including many issued as far back as 2015.
Participants in the post-election review suggested that INEC should
tackle this backlog by withdrawing PVCs that have been uncollected for extended
periods, starting with those distributed in 2015.
“Following the publication of the Register
of Voters, the commission made available the PVCs for collection by voters on
December 12, 2022. The exercise was initially planned to end on the 22nd of
January 2023. However, the fact that a huge number of registered voters had yet
to collect their PVCs forced the commission to extend the deadline to the 5th
of February 2023 after devolving the collection to the ward level between
January 6-15, 2023 to ease the process.
“The low rate of PVC collection and other related challenges are
illustrative of the problem of processing and managing voters in Nigeria. To
increase the rate of collection of PVCs, the commission implemented a policy
that made it possible for voters to locate their PVCs online and subsequently
pick them up. Several CSOs supported the commission’s drive to increase PVC
collection by working with INEC’s state/FCT Offices to record all uncollected
PVCs and to inform their owners where and how to collect them.
“With support from the development partners, some of the CSOs also
created information centres in selected states and the FCT to assist voters
locate and collect their PVCs. Despite these efforts, over six million PVCs
remained uncollected, many of them dating back to 2015.
Consequently, one recommendation from the review was that the commission
should consider withdrawing PVCs issued in 2015 since it is not clear if the
owners will ever collect them,” INEC said.
Also, the commission proposed plans to modernise Nigeria’s electoral
process, including the gradual phase-out of PVCs and the introduction of
diaspora voting.
It was explained that with the adoption of the Bimodal Voter
Accreditation System, PVCs may no longer be necessary for voter accreditation.
Instead, voters could use computer-generated slips or credentials downloaded
from the commission’s website.
“Unlike the SCR, the voters’ register is now resident in the BVAS. The
new device does not read and extract voters’ details from the PVC. Moreover,
the Electoral Act 2022 has made biometric accreditation (fingerprint or facial)
mandatory for voting.
“The utility of the PVC is now limited to voter identification. It is
therefore possible to identify voters using their registration slips which
obviates the need for PVCs, the cost of producing them, the logistics for their
distribution and the fact that voters without them are unable to vote, thus
raising serious issues of disenfranchisement. With the BVAS, voters can be
identified using their registration slips otherwise known as the Temporary
Voter’s Card and accredited biometrically without the need for a plastic PVC.
“However, such a step requires the amendment of Section 47(1) of the
Electoral Act 2022 which makes the presentation of the card (PVC) to the PO at
the PU mandatory before accreditation and voting,” the recommendation
said.
0 Comments