INEC: New Voters’ Cards Ready November, Weeds Off 2.7m Double Registration

•Says 56,000 PVCs ready for collection in Sokoto

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, said new Permanent Voters’ Cards would be ready by November.

INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, who hinted at this at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington DC, the United States, however, added that 2.7 million double registrations have been further weeded out of the last Continuous Voters Registration exercise conducted by the commission.

This is as INEC in Sokoto State, yesterday, said 16,000 new and 40,000 old PVCs were ready for collection by voters in the state for the 2023 polls.

However, according to Yakubu, about 50% of the new PVCs were ready but yet to be distributed to collection centres.

He raised concerns about the rising levels of insecurity across the country, saying the Commission has its “fingers crossed”.

His words: “It is a perennial issue, because, at the end of the day, it is not new but the dimension of the insecurity is new in the sense that in the past, it was localised or confined to a particular part of the country – the North East – but now, it is more widespread.

“We are keeping our eyes, particularly, on the North-West and the South-Eastern part of the country. Elections are conducted by human beings. We worry about the security of our officials, materials, and even the voters themselves. Without them, elections cannot be conducted.”

The INEC chief, however, said they “have spoken to the security agencies and they have assured us that the situation will improve before the elections. So, fingers crossed.”

Meanwhile, in Sokoto INEC also said the newly introduced  Bimordial voters accreditation system  B-VAS technology would further improve on the commissions mandate to deliver a credible exercise across the country.

Head, Voter Education in Sokoto, Muhammad Abbani Takai, disclosed this at a meeting convened for candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the commission to highlight its guidelines and rules on tracking financing and general electioneering process and campaign activities of parties.

“Candidates and parties spending limits have been spelt out by the commission, thus, must not exceed same,” he stressed.

In attendance at the meeting were the party’s governorship candidate, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, all other party candidates for various elective positions across the state.

He made reference to sections of its guidelines on vote buying, contribution and financing of candidates and parties campaigns, adding that, “INEC will not spare anyone, who violates its guidelines and rules, which will be subject to fines or imprisonment or both.

According to him, finances for presidential campaigns should not exceed N5bn, Governor N1bn,  Senator N100 million, Reps N70 million, and State Asssembly N30 million.

Takai said the commissioned was ready to conduct a transparent, free, credible and acceptable exercise with  the support and cooperation of critical stakeholders inorder to deepen the nation’s democracy.

Similarly, the commission’s spokesman in the state, Ahmed Musa, said, violent acts, hate speech, sensational messages, attacks on personalities, negative insinuations against parties, candidates, offices, campaigns at places of worship and based on religion, ethnic and sections are against its guidelines and any violation would attract sanctions.

APC chairman in the state, Hon Sadiq Isah Achida, acknowledged the unprecedented efforts and resilience of INEC to deliver on its promises towards improving the electoral process for the country to be among the best democracies of the world.