By Rasaq Adebayo
Following the extension of the PVC collection days, more registered voters have started picking their permanent voter’s cards (PVC) from the newly decentralized ward centres in Lagos.
As at the time of going to press, report from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials in Alimosho Local Government Area (LGA) indicated that 70 per cent of the total number of PVCs have been collected.
Similarly, Mushin, Agege and Oshodi-Isolo reported 70 per cent collection while Ikorodu is trailing behind with 55 per cent.
The increase in collection is due to various means put in place by INEC and Lagos State government to remove obstacles for the voters to collect their PVCs.
For instance, the Commission decentralised the exercise to the ward level to bring the exercise closer to people.
First, it decentralised the collection centers by taking the PVCs to the various electoral Wards in each local government area.
The major problem with this especially in Lagos is that many political Wards created for each LCDA were not recognised by the INEC. For instance, in Ejigbo LCDA, only one ward was recognised so that all the voters in Ejigbo had just only one center to collect their PVCs – Ejigbo is recognised as a Ward in Oshodi-Isolo LG which the federal government recognises.
The Commission devolved PVC collection to 245 electoral wards across Lagos State. Initially, the collection of PVC was done only in 20 LGAs where the offices of the Commission area.
The ward-level exercise was carried out between January 6 and 15, 2023, during which all registered voters who were yet to collect the PVCs were encouraged to use the opportunity of the decentralisation of the exercise to wards to do so.
After the 15th of January 2023 deadline, the exercise was taken back to the local government offices of the Commission where all eligible and valid registrants could then collect their PVCs between 9.00am and 3.00pm daily, including Saturdays and Sundays until January 22, 2023 when the collection is scheduled to end before the election on February 25.
The revert of the collection to the local government offices of INEC has again led to increasing number of voters queuing daily for their PVCs, while many still complain that they could not get their PVCS.
To further ameliorate the difficulty after the exercise was reverted to the local government offices of the Commission, the cards were being given in bulk to be distributed in each ward.
On its own part, the Lagos State government declared free public holiday to give the civil servants opportunity to get their cards.
The APC-led government in Lagos State declared four-day holiday from Tuesday, January 24 to Friday, January 27 for the workers to go and collect their PVCs. The workers were given different day based on their level to be off at work to be opportune to get their PVCs.
Apart from this, each political party in the State mobilised people to the collection centers to assist people in getting their PVCs.
Aside these, there are still challenges of information particularly for voters who have been migrated from old overloaded polling unit (PU) to the newly created one.
As part of its preparations for the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in June 2021, announced the creation of additional 56,872 polling units (PUs) in the country.
INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had said the electoral body converted former voting points and voting point settlements into polling units.
Ranking highest in the state-by-state distribution was Lagos State with 4,861 PUs. Prior to the creation of the new PUs, the state boasted of 8,464 PUs spread across its 20 local government areas (LGAs). Following the increment, the total number of PUs in the state has now risen to 13,325.
A breakdown of the distribution by LGAs in Lagos shows that Alimosho, the biggest and most populous LGA in the state, got additional 844 PUs, followed by Eti-Osa LGA with 430 PUs, while Ifako and Oshodi LGAs were allocated 426 and 380 PUs, respectively.
Other LGAs like Ikorodu and Ikeja were given 352 and 302 PUs, respectively. However, Epe LGA got the lowest number of additional PUs — 28.
Originally, the Commission urged the voters to apply to move from their old PUs to the new ones.
However, this was too slow and people refused to apply to migrate to the new PU, the Commission took the decision to automatically use their addresses on their slips to move them to the new PUs closer to their residences.
The challenge is that many voters still do not know that they have been moved from their original PU to the newly created one.
Meanwhile, the Commission has promised to resolve this challenge by publishing the voters’ names alongside their new PUs in the voters registered to be placed at PUs across the State before the election date.
ECHONEWS gathered that the new list will be made public two weeks before the election date, urging the voters to check for their new names at the new PUs close to them.
According to the INEC’s time table, the collection of the PVCs was supposed to close nationwide yesterday after it had earlier been extended. However, it was further extended for another one week till February 5, 2023 due to outcry and low number of collection so far recorded in some areas.
At the collection centres where the collection process is said to be frustrated, voters expressed disappointment as they could not get their cards.
Some said they are fed up of the exercise and tired of going for the collection despite the one week extension.
Some of the new registrants complained that they could not find their cards at the INEC office.
The complainants said their card may not have been printed yet by the Commission.
It was said that all those who applied for replacement of lost, damaged, or defaced PVCs could get their PVCs. The same thing applied to those who registered prior to the 2019 general elections and are yet to collect their cards.
“I went to the collection center, I was in a long queue for two days still I could not get my PVC. I’m tired of the exercise and I have concluded that I will not go there again, let them hold the card. It means I won’t be able to vote during the coming elections,” a resident of Ojota, Tayo Raji complained.
“I had determined to vote this time around but it seems the INEC is deliberately making the process difficult to frustrate many people out the elections. I went to the center, I was asked to go to cyber café to go and print my slip. I did so but to my surprise, they said they could not find my cards. So may other people who registered last year complained the same thing in my area here. We know our candidates but they want to disenfranchise us,” another residents of Ifako-Ijaiye complained to ECHONEWS.
With this, it was said that some residents may be disenfranchised to participate in the forthcoming general elections.
