- INEC said it has distributed about 630,000 PVCs in preparation for the Ekiti state governorship election
- The commission lamented that about 280,000 people are yet to collect their voters cards
- It stated that the 280,000 persons would not be allowed to vote unless they claim their PVCs before the election day
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says over 630,000 voters have collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and will be participating in the Ekiti state governorship election on Saturday, July 14.
The electoral body, however, lamented that with less than nine days to the election, over 280,000 persons had not yet collected their PVCs, The Punch reports.
NAIJ.com gathered that the INEC commissioner supervising Ekiti state election, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, revealed this during the quarterly meeting with the media in Abuja on Thursday, July 5.
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Soyebi said: “Ekiti State has 913, 334 registered voters. The number of parties contesting is 35. About 630,000 PVCs have been collected as of yesterday (Wednesday, July 4) which means we have about 280,000 uncollected in Ekiti.
“What this means is that out of the 913, 334 registered voters, about 630,000 are eligible to vote. As usual, a few months to the election, we devolved registration to the registration centres. All the PVCs that need to be collected are already in Ekiti.”
He said 280,000 persons would not be allowed to vote if they do not claim their PVCs.
Soyebi said at least 11,000 ad hoc workers would be deployed for the election which takes place on Saturday, July 14.
In his remarks, the chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said the full report of the Kano state local government election in which children were said to have voted would be published on the commission’s website on Friday, July 6 (today).
He said findings, videos and all relevant materials would also be made accessible to the public for the purpose of transparency.
Yakubu said the registration of new voters would stop in August as this would give INEC the opportunity to concentrate on other matters.
The INEC boss said with nearly 80 million registered voters, the main challenge was not registration but ensuring that people actually collect their PVCs without which they would not be able to vote.
On whether prisoners would be allowed to register as earlier planned by INEC, Yakubu said there was a high possibility it would happen because a court had ordered the commission to do so.
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NAIJ.com previously reported that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for the July 14 Ekiti election, Kayode Fayemi, criticised Governor Ayodele Fayose for declaring a public holiday for his campaign rally.
Fayemi through the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation said the governor declared Thursday, July 5, as a public holiday in the state to draft civil servants to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s rally.
A statement by the director of media and publicity of the campaign organisation, Wole Olujobi, alleged that Fayose was turning Ekiti state into a jungle where decent behaviour had no place in political conduct.
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Source: Naija.ng