Sam Amadi, Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts (ASSPT), has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to treat the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) as a national emergency for the 2023 general elections.
According to the political analyst, INEC should take drastic measures in response to challenges with PVC collection, particularly in Lagos State.
He accused some INEC staff in Lagos State of increasing ethnic profiling of voters during the ongoing distribution of PVC.
According to WITHIN NIGERIA, Amadi accused INEC staff of colluding with politicians to deny some registered voters their PVCs while speaking to pressmen in Abuja at a briefing on issues relating to PVC collection and related matters.
He advanced that;
The most damaging aspect of the whole exercise is the credible evidence of structural and strategic denial of PVC in some part of Nigeria, particularly Lagos state, where officials connive with political potentates to frustrate some citizens from collecting PVC or deliberately slow the pace to run out time.
It is important to note that every citizen of voting age has a constitutional right to vote irrespective of tribe and religion as long as the fellow makes effort to be registered to vote. This constitutional right can not be trumped by the inefficiency of the election management body or other exigencies.
Section 47 of the Electoral Act requires that a person intending to vote at any election must present a voting card to a presiding officer. That section is predicated on the constitutional right to vote. When a citizen has done all required to acquire a voter’s card, but the election management body fails to grant such fellow the facility to enjoy the constitutional right, then he or she cannot be deprived of the enjoyment of the constitutional right because of the refusal or failure of the state authority represent by INEC in this instance.
This means that we may be walking into a constitutional crisis if INEC does not improve its logistics and ensure that those who are willing to vote and are making efforts to collect their voter card collect the same before the date of the election.
Also, INEC must shift its mentality to meet the challenge of students in universities and other tertiary institutions who may not have returned home to collect PVC. Should INEC not be able to send their PVCs to their school addresses or aggregate these registrants and deliver them to them at their current locations of schooling?
The bottom line is that everyone should collect their ‘Voter’s Cards’ so that we do not deprive any Nigerians of the constitutional right to vote.
As a result, he proposed that the commission establish a situation room to receive real-time feedback from electorates experiencing difficulties in collecting their PVCs in order to avoid disenfranchising any Nigerian.
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