All registered Voters will get their PVC VOTERS CARD before 2019-INEC

Abuja – The Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) on Monday said eligible
persons registered in ongoing Continuous
Voter Registration (CVR) would get their
Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) before 2019
general elections.
INEC National Chairman, Mahamood Yakubu
addressing pressmen on new release of 2019
Election Time Table and Schedule of Activities
for 2019 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area
Council Elections while at INEC Office Abuja.
Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.
The Chairman of the commission, Prof.
Mahmood Yakubu, made this known at an
interactive session with newsmen in Abuja.
“Those who registered in 2017, their PVCs will
be ready in May; for those who registered in
2018 and those who intend to register will all
get their PVCs before the 2019 general
elections.
“For now, we are giving priority attention to
Ekiti and Osun governorship elections but all
registered Nigerians will get their PVCs before
the elections, ” he said.
Yakubu said that there were 1,446 centres
across the country where the voter
registration was ongoing, adding that 400
Direct Data Capture machines had been
deployed to hasten the process.
He said that the commission was committed
to conducting free, fair and credible elections
and improving the electoral process in the
country.
He urged the media to monitor the process of
forthcoming governorship elections in Osun
and Ekiti and report grey areas for immediate
actions by the commission.
The INEC helmsman said that the media
should collaborate with the commission on the
task of ensuring credible elections by exposing
any form of irregularities.
He said that discussions were ongoing with
telecommunication providers to ascertain the
availability of 4G and 3G networks in rural
areas to support transmission of election
results electronically from polling stations.
He said that the order of the 2019 elections
as announced by the commission remained
until a new law on elections was enacted.
Yakubu said the commission had completed
all preparatory steps ahead the elections and
that the election budget would be presented to
the appropriate authorities before the end of
the week.
He disclosed that the committee constituted
to investigate alleged registration of under-age
persons in Kano would commence work on
Wednesday.
According to him, the commission knows that
a credible election begins with a credible voter
register and the commission is interested in
knowing what exactly happened in Kano.
The chairman assured that only credible voter
register would be used to conduct elections in
2019.
In separate contributions, journalists urged the
commission to train and monitor the activities
of its ad hoc personnel, saying that it was
necessary to reduce chances of being
compromised.
They urged the electoral umpire to consider
the transfer of rural polling units in the North-
East to urban centres so as not to
disenfranchise Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs). (NAN)