Double Registration Won’t Stop You From Voting – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said those who carried out double registration are not entitled to a new permanent voters card.

The electoral body, however, noted that double registration won’t stop the electorates from voting in the forthcoming general election.

In a chat with Punch on Sunday, the National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, stressed that the commission didn’t print new PVCs for double registrants ahead of the 2023 general election.

Okoye noted that INEC has decided to retain their previous valid registration in order not to completely disenfranchise them.

The INEC official, however, added that those who engaged in double registration and possess multiple PVCs have committed an electoral offense.

“Only registrants that met the constitutional and legal requirements for registration will collect their Permanent Voter Cards. Those that engaged in double and multiple registrations are not entitled to new Permanent voter Cards and the commission did not print their cards”, he said.

“The commission decided to retain their previous valid registration in order not to completely disenfranchise them and such individuals can vote with their previous cards.

“Individuals that engage in double and multiple registrations and who go to the collection centers to cause confusion, insult, and assault some of our staff risk arrest and prosecution.

“It is an electoral offense to engage in double or multiple registrations and or possess two or more PVCs.”

File photo of the National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

On the other hand, Okoye said those who applied for a transfer are expected to collect their PVCs in the commission’s new local government office where they intend to vote.

He said, “The commission has printed the Permanent Voter Cards of all those that applied for a transfer. We have also printed and delivered the cards of those who applied for replacement because of loss, damage, or defacement.

“All those that applied for transfer must collect their cards in the new local government offices of the commission where they intend to vote and not in the local government where they were transferred unless it is the same.”