The rush to beat the stipulated INEC deadline has begun in Nigeria. This is coming as the Independent National Electoral Commission –INEC has given a deadline for qualified voters to register and collect their PVCs. The Permanent Voters Card will allow qualified individuals to vote during the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.
The country’s election agency has reported that voter registration in the South East, Lagos, and Kano have increased because of the mad rush in the three regions. Also, INEC has said that more enrolment machines have been brought for ease of registration. Festus Okoye, the INEC Head of Information and Voter Education Committee, had given a statement yesterday reporting that the sudden turnout of prospective registrants was overwhelming in some states in the country. He further added that the electoral commission had convened to decide the course of action to take, to enable more individuals to register before the stipulated deadline.
A total of 209 machines have been deployed and all the five South Eastern States (Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi), Lagos, and Kano have each gotten them. Mr. Okoye has announced that the situation in those regions would be monitored closely over the next few days and review the progress of the voter’s card registration exercise.
To collect the Permanent Voters Card, one would need to present his/her Temporary Voters Card, gotten from either the online registration or any INEC office in the area to register as a new voter. the deadline for Online Registration ended on 30th May 2022. It is expected that individuals would have completed their application and scheduled an appointment for biometric capturing before now.
The Continuous Voter Registration exercise would end by 30th June 2022 to enable the electoral commission to clean up the registration data, print the PVCs, and compile the register ahead of the presidential elections that will take place next year.
