The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun ward-level distribution of 128,396 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of the Area Council elections slated for the 21st of February in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of FCT, Malam Aminu Idris, disclosed this in Abuja during a media briefing on INEC’s preparedness for the polls.
According to him, the collection of PVCs would take place across the 62 Registration Areas in the six Area Councils of the FCT until the end of the month, after which the exercise would continue at INEC Area Council offices.
The PVCs available for collection include those for newly registered voters, voters who transferred their registration within the FCT, applicants who sought replacement for lost or damaged cards, as well as uncollected PVCs from previous registration exercises.
He reiterated that the Permanent Voter Card remains the sole valid means of voter accreditation and stressed that PVCs would not be released to third parties or collected by proxy.
Statistics of registered voters
The REC also gave statistics of the latest voter registration exercise which took place in the FCT on October 12 last year.
He said 106,855 individuals registered as new voters but after completion of the deduplication process, only 102,307 valid new voters were added to the register.
This has increased the total number of registered voters in the FCT to 1,680,315, compared to 1,570,307 recorded during the 2023 General Election.
He further disclosed that the FCT recorded 8,476 voter transfers into the territory and 775 transfers out during the period.
On INEC’s readiness for the election, Malam Idris stated that the Commission had received and batched all non-sensitive materials, activated the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and completed the accreditation of observers, media organisations, polling agents, and ad-hoc election staff.
According to him, the commission had stepped up voter education and sensitisation efforts, published the final register of voters for the election, strengthened collaboration with security agencies through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), and commenced engagements with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to ensure smooth logistics on election day.
Malam Idris reaffirmed INEC’s commitment to delivering a free, fair, inclusive, and credible Area Council election in the FCT next month.
