With just about 15 days left before the presidential election scheduled for Saturday, February 25, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ruled out extending the period for collecting Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). Speaking on Channels TV’s “The 2023 Verdict,” INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Festus Okoye said that, while the commission does not intend to disenfranchise any Nigerian, it is impossible to prolong the PVC collection window.
Okoye explained that, with the election only two weeks away, INEC must shift its staff from PVC distribution to election preparations. “Unfortunately, this commission can no longer extend the period of collection of the PVCs because we have just 15 days to go,” he said. Staff stationed in local government areas to issue PVCs must return to “regular programming,” receiving and matching non‑sensitive materials according to registration areas and wards in preparation for D‑day.
The commissioner added that the commission’s personnel need time to ready the sensitive materials required for the election, arrange accommodation for ad‑hoc staff who will be deployed to polling units at first light, and inspect those polling units to ensure they are fit for purpose. “We have so much to do and we need to get our staff ready for this exercise,” Okoye noted, mentioning that staff are also responsible for configuring the BVAS machines ahead of the vote.
Okoye acknowledged that some Nigerians may have missed collecting their PVCs “through no fault of theirs,” describing this as “unfortunate” and stressing that disenfranchisement is not the commission’s intention. He said INEC must compile a tabulation of the PVCs already collected across polling units, wards, local government areas and states to make the figures available to the public.
Reports that INEC had extended the PVC collection deadline twice after the initial cutoff are accurate. The commission first set January 22, 2023, as the deadline, then extended it by one week to January 29. Facing pressure and fearing many Nigerians would still be unable to collect their cards, INEC granted a further extension to February 5, 2023. To streamline the process, the commission shifted collection points from local government offices to the ward level and then back to the local governments.
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