The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu has disclosed plans to present the soft copy of the final and comprehensive register of 184,438 new voters to each political party fielding candidates in the September 21st Edo state Governorship election.
Prof Yakubu who made the announcement at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja said the register will be presented to the political parties tomorrow Tuesday 20th August 2024 at the state office of the commission in Benin City.
According to him, following the conclusion of the last Continuous Voters Registration CVR) in Edo and Ondo States, the Commission published the figures of new registrants for the two States following the clean-up of the register. For Edo State, 119,206 new voters were registered. In addition, 8,847 voters transferred their registration from other States of the Federation to Edo State while 46,171 voters transferred their registration within the State i.e. from one part of the State to another.
“As provided by law, the Commission has updated the records of 4,808 voters that applied for correction of names, addresses or dates of birth from previous registrations and also replaced 5,406 lost or damaged PVCs. Put together, 184,438 voters of various categories were served by the Commission during the last CVR in Edo State. They will be issued new voters’ cards (PVCs).
Prof Yakubu added that to ensure a seamless process, the cards will be available for collection in all the 192 Wards in the State where the last CVR took place from Thursday 22nd August 2024 to Monday 26th August 2024 from 9.00am to 5.00pm daily including the weekend.
“The collection will continue in our 18 Local Government offices across the State from Wednesday 28th August 2024 to Sunday 8th September 2024 from 9.00am to 5.00pm, including the weekends.
” Furthermore, the Commission has developed a register containing, among other information, the names and photographs of the 184,438 voters to ease the collection of their PVCs.
The INEC Chairman however emphasised that the Commission’s policy that PVCs must be personally collected by registered voters has not changed.
“The cards will not be distributed or collected by proxy so that they do not end up in the wrong hands. We urge voters who took their time to register during the CVR to also take time to collect their PVCs in person and, most importantly, to come out on Election Day and vote for the party of their choice,he said.
