The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday reiterated that only people who have the permanent voters card (pvc) will cast their votes at elcetions scheduled for February, despite a motion passed by the House of Representatives that empowers persons with temporary voters card to vote.
INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega while briefing newsmen said, “I can tell you that we are committed to ensuring that the 2015 election is conducted only using the PVCs and we are committed to doing that because we have introduced technology to reduce fraud.”
He aslo claimed that he is yet to receive any directive from the House of Reps on the use of temporary voters card.
The House arrived at the decision to allow the use of TVCs because a whole of Nigerians maybe disenfranchised.
While leading the debate, Gbajabiamila (Lagos/APC) stated that it was “very unlikely” that INEC will be able to distribute the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to all registered voters before the elections.
“The general elections being just four weeks or 31 days from now, it is very unlikely that the commission will be able to distribute the permanent voter cards to all registered and eligible voters before the elections.
“If the current position of the commission – that only those voters with the permanent voter cards are qualified to vote – is not addressed, many registered and eligible voters will be disenfranchised in the 2015 general election to the detriment of the growth of democracy in Nigeria,” he said.
Meanwhile, the INEC boss also revealed that a total of 68,833,476 Nigerians registered for next month’s general elections.