Borno REC says 128, 246 PVCs uncollected

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decried the non-collection of 128, 246 old and new Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) in Borno State, barely two months to the 2023 general elections.

According to the Commission, it registered 2.51 million voters with the requirement of 21,316 ad hoc staff to conduct the February 25 and March 11, 2023 elections.

While lamenting the non-collection of PVCs, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mohammed Magaji Ibrahim, said: “The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be used in accreditation and transmission of all election results.

“At present, there are 114, 531 old PVCs that have not been collected in the state. There are also 13, 715 new voters’ cards yet to be collected.”

He noted that the commission had just received 54, 949 replacements and transfers of PVCs in the state.

Besides the replacements of voters’ cards, he added that INEC would tomorrow embark on massive distribution of PVCs till January 22, 2023.

“The distribution of voters’ cards will take place in local council offices from January 16, 2023 to January 22, 2023. It will be suspended until after the elections,” he said.

Ibrahim said the old PVCs in the council offices were scanned to facilitate their collection under the new guidelines.

He warned that there would be no accreditation and voting without the PVCs. But, clarified that there would be electronic accreditation and transmission of results.
“The public will, during the elections, view in real time election results via INEC Result Viewing portal (IREV) www.ineelectionresults.ng,” he said.

He added that there would be migration of some voters from congested polling units to the nearest uncongested polling units.

On how and where the displaced persons and people with disabilities would vote, he said: “The commission’s drive for inclusive voting by Internally-displaced Persons (IDPs) and people living with disabilities, election materials and personnel will be deployed to secured Super Camps and the 5, 071polling units.”

He further said that 17, 948 security personnel are expected to provide security and patrols of various polling units in the state.