As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepares to conduct the November 16th Governorship election in Kogi and Bayelsa State respectively, the umpire has revealed that not less than two million Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) are set to be distributed to the electorate in Bayelsa and Kogi States.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this at a quarterly consultative meeting of the Commission with Civil Society Organizations in Abuja today.
In his words, “A total of 889,308 PVCs were collected in Bayelsa, while 1,485,828 PVCs were collected by the electorate in Kogi as of September 30,” he said.
Yakubu said in Bayelsa, the number of PVCs collected represented 96.3 per cent of 923,182 registered voters in the state, while the number of uncollected PVCs stood at 33,874, representing 3.7 per cent.
He also said 1,485,828 PVCs were collected in Kogi, representing 90.2 per cent of 1,646,350 registered voters in the state, while 160,522 PVCs were still uncollected, representing 9.8 per cent of the registered voters.
Prof Yakubu noted that the commission will make available detailed figures of PVCs collected in each state by Local Government Areas (LGAs) and Registration Areas (RAs) as part of continuing effort to deepen transparency and accountability.
He further stated that all uncollected PVCs have been retrieved from the LGA offices and would be deposited at the branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria in Bayelsa and Kogi for safekeeping, pending the resumption of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR),’’.
The electoral umpire revealed that about 135 domestic observer groups and 16 foreign observer groups for the elections in the two states have being accredited.
He said that while 67 domestic observer groups were accredited for Bayelsa, 68 were accredited for Kogi, and eight foreign observer groups for each of the states.
