Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has exonerated the commission from the non-collection of the Permanent Voters Card by Nigerians.
Jega stated this when he received a delegation of the Commonwealth observers for the 2015 general elections led by the former President of Malawi, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, at the Commission’s headquarters. He further stated that the Commission has surpassed a threshold of 82 percent collection rate
He explained why INEC may not achieve 100 percent collection rate of PVCS, saying, “some people who registered may have died, some may have moved out of the country, some may have lost interest in the electoral process”.
He gave the example of Ogun state where INEC got feedback of about 400 people who have died since the last registration.
While admitting that INEC may have experienced some administrative lapses in the distribution, the INEC Chairman pointed out that the Commission has been doing its best to keep improving on its processes. He regretted that “People are trying to make INEC the culprit for the low collection of PVCs.
“The large number of uncollected cards cannot be attributed to us, it is not like there was a deliberate effort on the part of INEC not to distribute the cards or to disenfranchise the registered voter because e that became the popular concept.”
When asked about the Commission’s arrangements for Internally Displaced Persons in the camps, given that some parties have claimed that voting in camps will give undue advantage to others, Prof. Jega explained that: “the challenge for the Commission and the security agencies is to ensure that we respect community wishes but we must do everything to ensure that voting in the camps does not confer on one group advantage and be disadvantage to others. So we have to ensure a level playing field for all participants and contestants.”
He debunked claims in some quarters that the distribution of PVCs was lopsided in favour of one region of the country. He said “People try to politicize the PVC collection in the North east, they try to blame INEC by saying that we tried to show preferential treatment by identifying certain areas we took to PVCs to them at the expense of other areas. These are just mere allegations, they are not true.”
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