234, 650 PVC’S UNCOLLECTED IN RIVERS STATE, SAYS REC

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Permanent Voters Card, PVC

Admin l Thursday, May 03, 2018

PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – A total of 234, 650 Permanent Voters Cards, PVC’s have not been collected by registered voters in Rivers State. Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effang, who disclosed the figure in an interview, in his office, in Port Harcourt, stated that the commission had registered 411, 617 voters in 12 months since it began registering new voters since April last year.




Effang identified security challenges in some local governments in the state. “In the meeting I had today with our Electoral Officers EO’s, in the 23 local governments areas in the state, we identified security as a problem which needs to be quickly tackled.

“We hope to address these security challenges with the help of the security agencies. Since voters are expected to register at the headquarters of their local governments, the task of placing them in polling units closer to their residence is the duty and responsibility of the commission. Voters are expected to give the addresses of their residence when they register. It is the address of the voters’ residence that will determine the polling unit that the voter will be placed to vote. Our policy is to ensure that voters are placed to vote in polling units closer to their homes because of the restriction on movements during election days.”

The resident electoral commissioner stated that the power to decide the candidate and the party that will win any election rests with the electorate and not with the commission.

“INEC has no power to decide the winner of any election. Our duty is to conduct the election. We are bound to give all candidates and political parties an even playing field. Only the electorate can decide who wins an electoral contest. It has nothing to do with INEC or the REC.” Effang emphasised: “Our duty as a commission is to maintain our integrity. We must conduct ourselves in a transparent manner such that the candidates seeking elective officers and the party they represent will feel confident enough to trust us to participate in the electoral process.”

The resident electoral commissioner appealed to the candidates and political parties to adhere to the rules and regulations stipulated by the constitution and the electoral act while participating in the electoral process.

“We enjoin all candidates and political parties to play by the rules. One thing I will do or what any manager of elections should do is to be fair to all. To demonstrate integrity and make it possible for the electorate to freely choose ther leaders without any inhibition.” Effang said the commission will continue with voters’ education up to the build up to the 2019 general elections because the commission has discovered that most prospective voters think the procedure for registration is cumbersome just because they don’t know what to do. 

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