The Independent National Electoral Commission has rejected a court order mandating it (INEC) to allow two persons vote without their Permanent Voters Card
A federal high court in Abuja had ordered the electoral umpire to allow two Nigerians; Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, to use their temporary voter cards (TVCs) to vote in the March 18 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023 and filed on February 8, the plaintiffs challenged INEC on the position that only a permanent voter card (PVC) can be used in an election.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Obiora Egwuatu, presiding judge, said the applicants should be allowed to use their TVCs in the absence of the PVCs.
“An order is made compelling the defendant (INEC) to allow the plaintiffs to vote using their temporary voter cards issued by the defendant, the plaintiffs having been duly captured in the national register of voter’s database,” the judge held.
“This court makes a declaration that the plaintiffs, having fulfilled all necessary legal requirements to register and having consequently been captured in the defendant’s (INEC’s) central database and manual, printed paper-based record or hard copy format of the defendant’s maintained register of voters, the plaintiffs are entitled to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards in the forthcoming 2023 general election.”
The court determined that neither the 1999 constitution nor the electoral act contained any language stipulating that only PVCs could be used for voting and that instead, Section 47 of the statute allowed for the use of a voter’s card.
The judge, however, refused to grant the third relief by the plaintiffs that sought to allow every eligible voter with a TVC to vote in the elections.
But reacting via its twitter account, INEC said it would head to the appeal court to challenge the ruling.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been served a copy of the judgement delivered today by the Federal High Court, Abuja Division which ordered it to allow 2 Plantiffs to vote with their Temporary Voter’s Card (TVC).
“The Commission is taking immediate steps to appeal against the judgement of the trial court.”
