By Godfrey AKON
Ahead of the November 11 off-cycle governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it has distributed a combined total of 5,169,692 Permanent Voter’s Cards, PVCs, in the three states.
The commission, in a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Sam Olumekun, however announced that a combined total of 239,746 PVCs were yet to be collected in the three states.
INEC said “The breakdown for the three States indicates that out of 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State, 1,017,613 have collected their PVCs and 39, 249 are uncollected.
“In Imo State, the number of registered voters is 2,419,922 out of which 2,318,919 have collected their PVCs and 101,003 are uncollected, while in Kogi State, out of 1,932,654 registered voters, 1,833,160 have collected their PVCs and leaving 99,494 uncollected.”
According to the statement, the commission met on Monday 30th October 2023, specifically to review the ongoing preparations for the off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled for Saturday, 11th November 2023.
It noted that as was done in recent elections, including the 2023 general election, the commission is publishing the comprehensive information of collected and uncollected PVCs in the three states on polling unit basis.
“The information also gives the distribution of the polling units by Local Government Areas, Registration Areas/Wards, the names of the polling units, their code numbers, number of registered voters and the number of collected as well as uncollected PVCs.
“Equally significantly, the list provides the names and locations of the two polling units in Bayelsa State and 38 in Imo State without registered voters. The detailed information has been uploaded to the Commission’s website www.inecnigeria.org
The commission appealed to all stakeholders to note the information, and that any vote from a polling unit in excess of the number of PVCs collected amounts to over voting.
It added that the number of PVCs collected shall be used for the computation of the margin of lead principle.