INEC Asked To Recommence Issuance Of PVC Ahead November Gov Polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been asked to commence issuance of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) to electorates in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States ahead of the November 11 polls.

Naija News gathered that the call was made by groups identified as Catch Them Young Community Initiative (CATYCOI), and Women in Politics Forum (WIPF).

In a statement on Sunday in Abuja, they said by the provisions of the new electoral act, the Commission is obligated to recommence the issuance of PVCs in the affected state.

The group said “Needless to say that it is mandatory for INEC to issue PVCs to eligible registered voters by virtue of Section 16(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 (as amended).

“This is to ensure that all eligible registered voters are able to exercise their franchise as guaranteed in the constitution.”

INEC Defends 2023 Election After Failing To Upload Presidential Election Results

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has submitted that the technical glitch which affected the upload of the 2023 presidential election result on its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) should not be used to judge the entire election.

This is as the electoral body denied wasting taxpayers’ money due to the inability to upload results real-time.

INEC spokesman, Festus Okoye made the submission on Thursday night during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today where he spoke on the glitches experienced during the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls.

He explained that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was successfully used for voter accreditation, and result upload for the polls in the other elections apart from the presidential.

“We are only talking about result upload for the presidential election only. It is not true or correct to insinuate even remotely that taxpayers’ money was wasted, and the machine did not work,” Okoye said.

Speaking further, Okoye said Nigerians should not judge INEC’s performance in the 2023 polls simply based on the challenge experienced in the upload of the presidential election results to its viewing portal.

“It is not fair to judge the entire performance of the commission on the basis of a glitch in the result upload for the presidential election,” he said.

He added that political parties contesting the outcome of the election should not only rely on electronically uploaded results as they all had agents at the various polling units who supervised the process.

“Almost all the political parties nominated and got accredited at least over 170,000 polling agents. What that means is that they had primary evidence of the results from the polling units.

“It is those results from the polling units, together with the BVAS as a machine itself that goes to the collation centre. So, it is not true for a political party to rely only on result upload in order to get the evidence with which it wants to prosecute its case in court,” he added.