Off-cycle elections: Voters collect 5.1m PVCs in Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said 5,169,692 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) had been collected in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi, ahead of the Nov. 11 governorship elections in the states.

The commission in a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun in Abuja, on Monday night, said the uncollected number of PVCs in the three states was 239,746.

“The breakdown for the three States indicates that out of 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa, 1,017,613 have collected their PVCs and 39,249 are uncollected.

“In Imo State, the number of registered voters is 2,419,922 out of which 2,318,919 have collected their PVCs and 101,003 are uncollected.

“In Kogi State, out of 1,932,654 registered voters, 1,833,160 have collected their PVCs,  leaving 99,494 uncollected,” he said.

Olumekun said that the commission met on Monday to review the ongoing preparations for the off-cycle governorship elections in the three states.

He, however, added that the detailed information on the PVCs had been uploaded to the commission’s website www.inecnigeria.org .

The comprehensive information,  according to Olumekun, includes the distribution of the polling units by local government areas, registration areas/wards, the names of the polling units, their code numbers, number of registered voters and the number of collected as well as uncollected PVCs.

“Equally significant, the list provides the names and locations of the two polling units in Bayelsa and 38 in Imo without registered voters,” he said.

Olumekun appealed to stakeholders to note the information.

“Any vote from a polling unit in excess of the number of PVCs collected amounts to over voting.

“The number of PVCs collected shall be used for the computation of the margin of lead principle,” Olumekun said.(NAN)