Emeka Ononamadu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Enugu State, has expressed worry over uncollected 500,000 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) in the state.
Mr Ononamdu disclosed that only 600,000 of the 1.1 million PVCs had so far been collected by the electorates in the state.
He made the observation during the National Orientation Agency’s campaign against invalid (void) votes held in Enugu on Thursday.
According to him, it is worrisome that 500,000 PVC’s are yet to be collected barely six weeks to the general elections.
The REC said the reason for the development could be attributed to the notion that electorates votes did not count.
“Please dispel any rumour that your votes will not count and as such, you have made it a reason not to collect your PVC and use it during election.
“I can categorically tell you that INEC has put in place adequate measures to ensure that you excise your right and vote for your choice person without being robbed of such vote.
“One of such measures is the use of smart card readers which will help guide against issues such as ballot snatching and rigging hitherto rampant before.
“It is for this reason that politicians are not jostling to buy your PVC’s because vote snatching and rigging has been curtailed with the introduction of smart card readers.
“That is why there were no cases of ballot snatching and rigging during the Osun and Ekiti elections but the issue of vote buying,” he said.
Mr Ononamadu hinted that INEC would embark on a weeklong aggressive campaign from January 16 to ensure that all PVC’s at its disposal were collected.
The REC disclosed that there would be over 4,000 voting locations and 2,958 polling units in the 260 electoral wards spread across the 17 local government areas of the state.
Moreso, he noted, that INEC Enugu has made provision for 6,000 smart card readers to adequately cover all the voting locations and minimize error or malfunctioning as against 4,000 needed for the state.
Daily Independent
