Nigerians without Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have been advised to avoid polling stations on Election Day because only those with PVCs will be permitted to vote.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has told Nigerians without PVCs not to go to polling units on Saturday because they have no business there.
Festus Okoye, the commission’s Information and Voter Education Committee Chairman, issued the warning on Thursday in Abuja, when he received IT support from Community Life Project (CLP) and Ford Foundation for the INEC Citizens Contact Centre (ICCC).
According to him, no other form of identification other than the PVC would be used on Election Day, noting that INEC remained committed to using the Bimadal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voter accreditation and uploading election results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Okoye submitted that;
As Nigerians go to the polling units on Election Day, we want to point out that it is a mandatory provision of the Electoral Act that every citizen who wants to vote in the coming election must have a PVC.
It is a mandatory requirement of Section 47, subsection 1 of the Electoral Act.
“So, individuals that do not have the PVC are not required to approach any of our polling units.No individual is permitted to go to the polling units and provide any other means of identification other than the PVC.
The INEC commissioner also cautioned election observer groups and fellow citizens that only INEC has the legal right to announce election results.
He stated that;
No media organisation, no individual, no citizen, no domestic or international election observer is permitted under the condition or under the law to announce election results.
As some of you are aware, the chairman of INEC is the Electoral Commissioner for the whole of the Federation and the Returning Officer for the presidential election.
So, only the chairman of the commission is permitted by the constitution and the Electoral Act to announce the presidential results.
Any other person can be appointed by the commission to announce any other level of election.
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