According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 87 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been collected so far in preparation for the upcoming general elections.
This was revealed by INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu at the inaugural briefing for the 2023 elections in Abuja on Thursday.
A breakdown of the figures revealed that Lagos has the most PVCs collected, with 6,214,970. Kano comes in second with 5,594,193 and Kaduna comes in third with 4,164, 473.
He stated that the current voter register contains over 94 million voters, but that the Commission will continue to clean it up using technology in the future.
According to him, of the number, 93.3 percent have collected their PVCs while 6,259,229 cards — which is 6.7 percent of PVCs — are still uncollected.
Summary of the Registered Voters ahead of the #NigeriaDecides2023 election;
✓ Number of Collected PVCs = 87,209,007
✓ Number of Uncollected PVCs = 6,259,229 collected
The INEC chairman further revealed that a total of 1,642,385 polling units and collation center agents of political parties will participate in the elections.
He also disclosed that the Commission has fully recovered from the recent attacks on her facilities in some states.
He raised concerns about vote buying but was hopeful that the vices will be dealt with. He stated that voters are not allowed to go to the voting cubicle with their phones.
Noting that all materials have been distributed to states, he said the sensitive materials are currently being delivered to local government areas. He said that nonsensitive materials were deployed two months ago.
The INEC chairman reiterated that 240 polling units do not have voters, but added that the staff who will be deployed for the elections has been trained.
He assured that the commission will closely monitor staff behavior and will sanction anyone who jeopardizes the process.
Yakubu also stated that the Commission is pleased with the BVAS’s performance following a mock accreditation exercise a few weeks ago. He also stated that backup technicians for the BVAS were deployed for the election.
According to Yakubu, the purpose of the daily briefing is to keep stakeholders informed as events unfold in the run-up to and during the election.
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