Ahead of the 2027 general elections, residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, seeking to register for Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have decried long waiting hours, overcrowding and inadequate registration facilities at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices.

A visit yesterday by The Guardian to the INEC Headquarters on No. 10, Olusegun Obasanjo Way, Area 10, FCT, revealed scores of prospective voters gathered both within and outside the premises, many of whom said they arrived as early as 7 a.m. but had yet to be attended to several hours later.

The development comes as INEC continues the third and final phase of the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which commenced on May 11 and is expected to end on July 10, 2026.

Among those waiting at the centre was a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), who said she had registered as a voter in 2022 but could no longer find her details in the voter database.

Another prospective voter, who simply identified himself as Jerry, expressed frustration over the pace of the exercise, saying the commission needed to improve its data management and registration process.

He stated, “I have been here since 7 a.m. The staff are around, but the system is very slow. INEC should have a better way of managing data and capturing voters because, as it is, many people may not be able to get their PVCs before the deadline.”

Many of the prospective voters observed by The Guardian had arrived early to secure positions on a handwritten attendance list while hoping to improve their chances of being captured before the close of business.

However, an INEC official who declined to be named, blamed the surge in turnout on Nigerian’s tendency to wait until the final stages of registration before showing up.

“When the exercise started, people were not coming. We were looking for people to register and you would hardly see anyone. Now that the deadline is approaching, everybody wants to register at the same time,” the official said.

A similar situation was observed at the INEC office in Bwari, adjacent to the Primary Healthcare Centre. Though the turnout was significantly lower than that of the Area 10 headquarters, prospective voters also complained about the slow pace of registration.

One of the prospective voters, Abdullahi Yunusa, told The Guardian that he had been visiting the centre for about a week without completing his registration. He said: “Sometimes, the officials themselves come late, and the process is very slow. I am worried that if this continues, I may not be able to register before the deadline.”

Responding to the complaints, however, the FCT INEC Administrative Secretary, Abimbola Oladunjoye, said the commission had already registered thousands of voters in the FCT since the commencement of the current phase.

“I agree that at a point last week, we had some network challenges, but the issues have been resolved. Since we resumed on Monday, I don’t think we have had any network problem affecting the system.”