Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
As the scramble for political positions intensified ahead of 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has disclosed that an aggregate of 234,037 voters are yet to claim their Permanent Voter Cards in Ekiti State.
The new INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti, Prof. Ayobami Salami, gave the revelation yesterday during a visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ secretariat in Ado Ekiti.
Salami said: “Preparatory to the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Ekiti, let me state that INEC has 16 local government areas, 177 registration areas, and 2,445 polling units to deal with.
“We have a total number of 988,923 registered voters out of which 754,886 voters have collected their PVCs while 234,037, representing 24 per cent are yet to collect their PVCs.”
Salami cleared the air on the insinuation that technological innovation invented by INEC might be jettisoned for the conduct of the 2023 polls, saying that the Bimodal Voters Authentication System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) Portal would be fully deployed in all elections.
He urged registered voters to break away from the culture of long-standing apathy, and participate actively in the 2023 general elections.
“As part of our preparations, the INEC had on November 12, 2022, commenced a nationwide display of preliminary claims and objections, which shall end on November 25, 2022.
“Therefore, I want to use this medium to call on registered voters to visit our local government headquarters to actively participate in the exercise using our online link.”
On the recent court’s judgment directing INEC to continue with registration of voters, Salami said; “INEC would comply whenever the court judgment is served. But we are yet to be served. As law abiding commission, we will abide by it.”
The professor of Environmental Science added that the commission would build on the success recorded in the June 18, 2022 governorship election in Ekiti, and other past polls adjudged to be transparent and acceptable.
