INEC assures voters in Kogi, Bayelsa of PVCs

(Nigeria) The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has assured newly registered voters in Kogi and Bayelsa that they would get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) before upcoming elections in both states.
Deputy Director, Publicity, of the commission, Mr Nick Dazang, said in Abuja that the commission was working to ensure that the voters would participate in the exercise.
INEC has scheduled governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa on November 21 and December 5, respectively.
Dazang said that the commission was already running automated finger identification on the data of the registered voters in the two states.
``The ICT department is working seriously to make sure they remove multiple registration information after which they will produce the PVCs which will be distributed before the elections.
`` So, voters in Kogi and Bayelsa should be assured that those who registered and those who have not collected their PVCs would collect them before the elections.
``Our stand has always been that no PVC, no voting.
``We will still use the same template we used in the general elections for the two states’ elections,’’ he said.
On nationwide conduct of CVR, Dazang said that the commission had set up a committee headed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Benue, Prof. Istifanus Dafwang, ahead of the 2019 general election.
He hinted that the commission may acquire newer Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines to conduct a nationwide continuous voter registration before the 2019 general elections.
He said that acquiring new data capturing machines was necessary as the shelf life of most of the ones acquired in 2011 was four years.
``Between 2011 and now, most of the computers we used have fall into disuse.
"What we have done in the case of Kogi and Bayelsa was to service the few computers we need.
‘’But for nationwide CVR, we might need to acquire newer DDC machines because the nationwide CVR may not take place this year," he said.