BY JENNIFER JOHN / OWERRI
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Imo State has again disclosed that it has piles of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) numbering about 134,000 (one hundred and thirty four thousand) in its offices across the 27 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
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The State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Professor Sylvia Agu who made this known during a press briefing at the commission’s head office yesterday, called on registered Imolites to go to their various LGA of INEC offices and other designated centres to collect their PVCs.
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Agu said that people of Orsu LGA would collect theirs at the INEC state office because of security situation of the area.
She made it clear that PVCs are not collected by proxy, adding that they must be exchanged with the temporary voter cards.
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According to her the Commission had gone a step further to send SMS to owners of the uncollected PVCs in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States where elections would hold on November 11, this year.
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“INEC opened an online registration portal for adhoc staff recruitment for interested persons to apply for the job of adhoc staff during the election”, she said.
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The REC maintained, “In Imo, INEC is fully prepared to conduct a free and fair election as all non sensitive materials have been received and will be distributed to the LGAs, even as all necessary trainings have either been concluded or ongoing.”
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“On the issue of security, we have been meeting with security agencies and they have been assuring us that they are going to provide watertight security, so there is nothing to fear
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She reiterated on the voting procedure saying, “Poles shall open at 8:30am and end by 2:30pm, but if there is any voter already on queue by the time, the person will be attended to. Every voter is expected to present his or her voter card for accreditation with the Bimodal Accreditation System BVAS.
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“The poll official is expected to check and ensure that name of the voter is in the voter registration for the polling unit. When confirmed and fully accredited, the voter is issued a ballot paper. The voter goes to the voting cubicle to make his choice by thumbprinting, after which the voter drops the paper inside the ballot box.
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“The voter is expected to stay 300 metres away from the voting area to witness vote sorting and counting”, the REC emphasized.
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