Says insecurity remains threat to electoral process
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would provide fresh Permanent Voters Cards for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) ahead of next general elections.
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter’s Education Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye made the disclosure on Thursday.
The venue was the Town Hall meeting organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors held in Abuja.Okoye said the step became necessary to capture eligible voters in the country whom he noted must have lost their PVCs owing to their dislocation from the areas they were resident.Checks revealed that the affected citizens are mostly from the North West and Northeastern part of the country displaced by insurgency and banditry.
Okoye cited provisions of the Electoral Act which makes it compelling for INEC not to disenfranchise such Nigerians at the receiving end of insecurity in the country.
He said: “Growing insecurity in several parts of the country and the increasing number of internally displaced persons will pose challenges to the conduct of the 2023 general election. So many of the internally displaced persons are in the houses of friends and relatives and have lost their Permanent Voters Cards and it is next to an impossibility to recreate their constituencies and polling units.
This is because section 47(1) of the Electoral Act clearly provides that “A person intending to vote in an election shall present himself with his voter’s card to a Presiding Officer for accreditation at the polling unit in the constituency in which his name is registered.”
Some of these persons are no longer in their constituencies and can no longer access their polling units and so many of them have lost their Permanent Voters Cards.
While it is easy to recreate constituencies and polling units in clustered camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP camps), it is next to an impossibility to do so for persons staying in scattered locations.
“For the internally displaced, the Commission will print new Permanent Voters Cards for them and recreate their polling units in their camps and they will be eligible to vote in some of the elections depending on their location and their proximity to their State and Federal Constituencies. This is in accord with section 24(1) of the Electoral Act, which provides that “In the event of an emergency affecting an election, the Commission shall, as far as practicable, ensure that persons displaced as a result of the emergency are not disenfranchised”. Based on this, the Commission developed regulations and guidelines on IDP voting and will implement the intendment of the law and the Regulations and Guidelines
“As you are aware, the Commission is currently at the terminal phase of its Continuous Voters Registration Exercise (CVR). There are so many communities that are still inaccessible to our registration officers. In the next few weeks, the Commission will roll out modalities for the further devolution and rotation of the CVR to our registration areas and the security of our personnel and the registrants are fundamental to the success of the exercise. We are determined to register all eligible registrants but will not expose our staff to unnecessary danger. We will roll out and roll back depending on the security situation in different parts of the country.”Okoye further appealed “to the media to continue to highlight and analyze the causes and possible solutions to the security challenges in the country and continue to hold the government accountable. The various security agencies must try as much as possible to degrade if not neutralise the security threats and challenges in different parts of the country. Voting and the exercise of democratic mandate may not be the priority of persons enveloped in a climate and atmosphere of fear and anxiety.”
