WorldStage Newsonline– Ahead of the off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that a total of 5,169,692 permanent voters cards (PVCs) had been collected in the three states.
INEC, in a statement by it National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun explained that a total of 239,746 PVCs are yet to be collected.
He said the commission met on Monday and reviewed the ongoing preparations for the elections in the three tates scheduled for Saturday, 11th November 2023.
“As was done in recent elections, including the 2023 General Election, the Commission is publishing the comprehensive information of collected and uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) in the three States on polling unit basis,” he said.
“The information also gives 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 significantly, the list provides the names and locations of the two polling units in Bayelsa State and 38 in Imo State without registered voters.”
Olumekun gave the breakdown for the three states as 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State, 1,017,613 collected PVCs and 39, 249 uncollected. In Imo State, the number of registered voters 2,419,922 out of which 2,318,919 collected PVCs and 101,003 uncollected, while in Kogi State, out of 1,932,654 registered voters, 1,833,160 collected PVCs and leaving 99,494 uncollected.
“We appeal to all stakeholders to note the information that 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,” he said.
