The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) will not be released to third parties ahead of the upcoming gubernatorial election in Edo State, News About Nigeria reports.
This was disclosed by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Olumekun confirmed that new applicants across Edo State’s local government areas will be able to collect their PVCs starting Wednesday, August 28.
He also noted that the recent distribution of PVCs at the ward level had successfully concluded, with 125,928 cards collected within five days.
“As earlier announced by the commission, Permanent Voter Cards from the recent Continuous Voter Registration in Edo State would be available for collection at two levels. First, across all the 192 wards from Thursday, 22, to Monday, 26, August 2024. Secondly, in our 18 LGA offices,” Olumekun stated.
The INEC commissioner stated that the commission had carefully organised the PVCs by Polling Units, Wards, and LGAs, and had also produced a collection register with details of the voters whose cards were ready for collection.
This information was uploaded to the commission’s website, and voters were contacted using the addresses provided during registration.
“As a result, out of the 184,438 new PVCs available, 125,928 cards were collected by voters, representing 68.3 percent of the total. This is the highest percentage of PVCs collected in five days since the commission introduced the CVR ahead of off-cycle governorship elections in 2015,” he added.
INEC has made a detailed breakdown of the collection by LGAs available on its website and social media platforms.
The collection of PVCs will continue at the 18 LGA offices in Edo State from Wednesday, August 28, and will end on Sunday, September 8, 2024.
Olumekun stressed that PVCs must be collected in person and that no cards would be given out by proxy.
Information on the locations of the LGA offices is already available on the commission’s website.
