A total of 68,833,476 Nigerians
registered for next month’s general elections, the Independent National
Electoral Commission has said.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega,
at a meeting with the national leadership of all the 23 registered
political parties in Abuja on Tuesday evening, added that over four
million people were involved in multiple registrations.
He said, “In line with the provisions of
the law, the commission has just announced the publication of the
register of voters that will be used for the February 2015 general
elections. The total number of voters registered for the elections is
68,833,476.”
Jega explained that the names of those involved in double registration had been deleted from the computer.
He said that 38,774,391 Nigerians had so
far collected their Permanent Voter Cards out of the 54,341,610 that
were ready as of Monday last week.
Jega added that the commission had ordered for more PVCs and that some were already awaiting collection.
The INEC boss said, “The commission has
taken delivery of additional PVCs from its contractor and
we are
positive that we will have all outstanding cards with us by January 28,
2015.
“For the avoidance of doubt, possession of PVCs is a strict condition for anyone intending to vote in the 2015 elections.”
Asked about the resolution passed by the
House of Representatives shortly before he met with the leaders of the
parties asking INEC to also use Temporary Voter Cards , he said he was
not aware of the resolution.
He nevertheless said that the commission was working with the intent of using only PVCs for the elections.
Jega regretted that many Nigerians had
failed to collect their PVCs, adding that in order to address this, the
commission had directed all its resident electoral commissioners to
further decentralise the distribution of the cards to the ward level.
The distribution, according to him , would begin at 8. 30am and end at 5. 30pm every day except Sunday.
He added, , “INEC will use card readers
for the elections. The commission has taken delivery of more than
130,000 units of the card readers and we are on schedule to receive the
remaining quantity before the end of January.”
Jega announced that the deployment of the
cards to states had started, adding that there were about 150,000
polling points in the country.
He said that elections would hold in all
the parts of the country, including the troubled North-East, but added
that this might be difficult in some local governments being fully
occupied by Boko Haram.
The electoral umpire added, “INEC has
always said it is preparing to conduct elections in all the 36 states of
the federation, including the three North- East states experiencing the
challenge of insurgency.
“The commission, however, will work closely with security agencies who have the constitutional responsibility for security .”
On whether Internally Displaced Persons
would vote, he said that the commission was finalising arrangements to
enable them to vote.
He said on Tuesday, the commission would meet with stakeholders to present its plans and get their input.
Adding that 14 political parties
submitted candidates for the presidential election. But he did not give
the names of the parties and the candidates.
For the senatorial election, where there
are 109 seats. he said that there are 739 candidates. About 1,780
candidates, according to him, are vying for the 360 seats in the House
of Representatives.
This makes the total number of candidates vying for the 479 seats in the National Assembly 2,519.
Jega said that INEC would publish the
lists of the candidates for the state elections (governors and the State
Houses of Assembly) on January 27.
Earlier, the Director, ICT Department in
the commission, Mr. Chidi Nwafor, made a presentation to the party
leaders on how the commission carried out the registration exercise.
He said that some voters used different names to register.
In his submission, the Chairman of
Inter-Party Advisory Council, Mr. Tanko Yunisa, commended INEC for
its strict compliance with the law.
He asked that copies of the voter register be presented to parties to enable them to make their observations where necessary.
See more at: http://www.punchng.com/news/68-8-million-nigerians-to-vote-in-feb-elections-inec/
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