A political economist and management specialist, Pat Utomi, has requested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should allow registered voters to cast their votes without their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).
According to him, about 9.3 million uncollected PVCs were still in INEC offices across the federation, with less than 100 days to the 2023 elections.
The political analyst argued that since the commission had adopted biometric voting, eligible voters only needed to go to the polling units and get scanned to cast their ballots.
Utomi, who spoke yesterday during a PVC collection advocacy walk to the INEC headquarters in Abuja, noted that the request can be against the backdrop of poor collection rates of PVCs.
He said the rate of uncollected PVCs which still stands at about 9.3 million can be described as a national emergency that needed urgent attention.
Utomi, who spoke on behalf of the organizers of the event, (The Big Tent) said, “Secondly, we want them to understand that the process that they have embarked on is a biometric process. In fact, one does not need PVC to vote because one has been captured already. One’s biometrics is in the system. If one shows up on Election Day without any PVC and one’s fingerprint and face are scanned, one should be able to say that he or she is registered.
“We say it is the duty of INEC to do everything possible to decentralise the collection of PVCs and ensure that everybody who is registered gets their PVCs. We think it is not acceptable for Nigerians to be disenfranchised. If INEC needs help to make sure that the PVCs get to their rightful owners, we are ready to volunteer.”
However, the INEC Chief Press Secretary Rotimi Oyekanmi, who reacted to the request told Punch that voting through PVCs is backed by law.
Oyekanmi explained that “The procedure for accreditation and voting in an election is captured under Sections 47(1), (2), and (3) of the Election Act 2022.
“Therefore, there is no way that a voter can be allowed to vote without his or her PVC. There are no two ways about it.”
The Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Kelechi Maduneme, who received the group after the walk appealed to voters to get their PVCs because it was the duty of the commission to carry out PVC distribution.
