By Kelechi Opara, Abuja
Ahead of the September 21 governorship election in Edo state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will on Tuesday handover the softcopy of the voters’ register to all the political parties listed for the exercise.
National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu gave the assurance on Monday during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the national headquarters of the Commission in Abuja.
Yakubu said the electoral body was putting in place all what it would take to have a free, fair and credible election in the state.
“Still as part of our preparations for the Edo State Governorship election, the softcopy of the final and comprehensive register of voters will be presented to each political party fielding candidates in the election tomorrow Tuesday 20th August 2024 in our State office in Benin City. This is in fulfillment of item 10 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election”.
The INEC Chairman further stated that the Commission has published the figures of new registrants for Edo state as well as Ondo state where another off-cycle governorship election will take place in November.
“Following the conclusion of the last Continuous Voters Registration CVR) in Edo and Ondo States, the Commission published the figures of new registrants for the two States following the clean-up of the register. For Edo State, 119,206 new voters were registered. In addition, 8,847 voters transferred their registration from other States of the Federation to Edo State while 46,171 voters transferred their registration within the State i.e. from one part of the State to another.
“As provided by law, the Commission has updated the records of 4,808 voters that applied for correction of names, addresses or dates of birth from previous registrations and also replaced 5,406 lost or damaged PVCs. Put together, 184,438 voters of various categories were served by the Commission during the last CVR in Edo State. They will be issued new voters’ cards (PVCs).
“I am glad to report that all the cards have been printed and delivered to our office in Benin City. From there, they have been handed over to our Electoral Officers (EOs) for collection by voters. To ensure a seamless process, the cards will be available for collection in all the 192 Wards in the State where the last CVR took place from Thursday 22nd August 2024 to Monday 26th August 2024 from 9.00am to 5.00pm daily including the weekend. Thereafter, the collection will continue in our 18 Local Government offices across the State from Wednesday 28th August 2024 to Sunday 8th September 2024 from 9.00am to 5.00pm, including the weekends. Detailed information on the dates and location of the 210 centres (192 Wards and 18 LGA offices) has been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.
“Furthermore, the Commission has developed a register containing, among other information, the names and photographs of the 184,438 voters to ease the collection of their PVCs. The register has also been uploaded to our website (https://inecnigeria.org/?page_id=13804) to facilitate easy identification and collection of the cards”.
He nevertheless emphasized the policy that PVCs must be personally collected by registered voters has not changed.
“The cards will not be distributed or collected by proxy so that they do not end up in the wrong hands. We urge voters who took their time to register during the CVR to also take time to collect their PVCs in person and, most importantly, to come out on Election Day and vote for the party of their choice”, he concluded.
