Oru Leonard
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has appealed to CSOs to join in mobilising prospective registrants for the CVR exercise, particularly on the need to register early and not wait until the deadline approaches when the registration centres will be inundated by eleventh hour registrants.
The INEC Boss who stated this while hosting leaders of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), on Tuesday at Abuja, added that the Commission will make available the uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for collection during the CVR.
“In the coming days, the list of uncollected PVCs will be published in our offices in the two States and simultaneously uploaded to our website. We believe doing so will make it easier for voters to collect their PVCs. However, no PVCs will be collected by proxy. Registered voters should come in person to collect their cards. Again, we seek for the support of CSOs in encouraging voters to locate and pick up their PVCs as was done in the past”, he urged.
Still on preparations for the two Governorship elections, the Chairman said the Commission has published the final list of candidates for the Edo Governorship election following the conclusion of party primaries and the end of the period for withdrawal and substitution of candidates as provided in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election.
“Campaign in public by political parties commenced on Wednesday 24th April 2024 and will end at midnight on Thursday 19th September 2024 (i.e. 24 hours) before the date fixed for the election as provided by law. We look forward to your monitoring reports of the campaigns as some of you have done in the past”, he announced.
According to INEC, resumption of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in Edo and Ondo States ahead of the Governorship elections is scheduled for September and November 2024 respectively.
The Commission said the CVR exercise would run concurrently in both States from Monday, 27th May 2024 to Wednesday, 5th June 2024 and will accommodate people seeking to transfer their registration and those with lost or damaged voter cards can have them replaced within the period.
Recall that in a meeting with leader of political parties yesterday The INEC Chairman outlined that the registration exercise would be conducted in 192 Ward registration centres in Edo State, 203 Ward registration centres in Ondo State in addition to State offices in Benin City and Akure, totaling 397 walk-in registration centres across the two States.
He said the CVR in both states will occur daily from 9.00 am to 3.00 pm including weekend. Prof. Yakubu warned that registered voters should not attempt to register again as double or multiple registration is illegal.
He explained that “taking into consideration the limited time to the Governorship elections, the Commission has decided to conduct the registration at the Ward levels and our State headquarters instead of our Local Government offices and a few designated centers as was the case in the past.
