The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it was considering collaboration with States Independent Electoral Commission (SIECS) to effectively distribute 7.8 million uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) across the country.
Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Yakubu said that effective distribution of the cards had remained a problem to the commission and that strategies were being adopted to distribute the cards along with Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) beginning in April.
He charged the RECs to urgently explore ways for the commission to partner SIECs, especially in states where council elections had been scheduled, to distribute the PVCs.
“I hope as decided at one of our meetings, you have come with a more recent update on the level of collection of PVCs.
“The report I received as at last week Monday is not very encouraging; not much has been achieved since the last meeting. We would like to know how we can expedite the process.
“We will review and see how we can partner SIECS in states that are holding their Local Government Areas (LGAs) elections soon to see how we can partner in delivering the PVCs.
“But, it has to be done in a manner that places INEC squarely in charge of the delivery of the PVCs,’’ Yakubu said.
He warned that there should be no delivery of the PVCs by proxy, stressing that each card had to be given to its true owner by INEC official.
Yakubu informed the RECs that the meeting would have a post-mortem on recent elections conducted by the commission, preparation for 2019 general elections and forthcoming elections.
“There are lessons we need to learn going forward because we haven’t concluded the elections from the 2015 general elections.
“We still have outstanding re-runs; one is the Anambra Central re-run and then, two others caused by death – one in Delta state constituency and the other in Katsina Federal Constituency.
“So, it will be good for us to reflect on the elections we have conducted.
“Then, we need to look at our preparation for the next major election of the commission coming up this year – the Anambra state governorship election,’’ he said.
Currently, only Bayelsa, Delta, Yobe and Kaduna have RECs as those in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had disengaged following completion of their tenures.
Administrative Secretaries represented states and FCT without RECs at the meeting.
Yakubu expressed optimism that the Presidency, charged with the responsibility of appointing RECs would do so soon. (NAN)
OBE/OPI/OPI