INEC Says 68 Million Voters Registered For 2015 Elections, 4 Million Nigerians Involved In Double Registration

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INEC Chairman yielded to pressure?

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that a total number of 68,833,476 voters registered for the February general elections.

INEC Chairman
INEC Chairman

Jega, made the disclosure at the meeting the commission with national leadership of the 23 registered political parties in Abuja on Tuesday evening.

He said: “In line with the provisions of the law, the commission has just announced the publications 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,” the INEC boss revealed.

Adding that, over four million Nigerians that were involved in double registration have had their names deleted from the register.

He disclosed further that 38,774,391 Nigerians had collected their Permanent Voter Cards out of the 54,341,610 that were ready as of Monday last week.

He, however, said the commission had ordered more PVCs and that some of them were already waiting for collection.

“The commission has taken delivery of additional PVCs from the contractor, and we are positive that we will have all outstanding cards with us by 28 January, 2015.

“For the avoidance of doubt, possession of PVCs is a strict condition for anyone intending to vote in the 2015 elections,” he added.

He said he was not aware of the resolutions passed by the House of Representatives, asking the commission to allow voters to use the Temporary Voter’s Card (TVC) in the upcoming general elections.

The commission, Jega said, was working with the intent of using only PVCs for the elections.

Jega regretted that many Nigerians refused to collect their PVCs, adding that in order to address this, the commission had directed all resident electoral commissioners to further decentralise the distribution of the cards to the ward level.

He said, the time for the distribution, had also been fixed from 8.30am to 5.30pm, from Monday to Saturday.

He said contrary to the doubt being entertained in some quarters, the electoral umpire would use card readers for the elections.

“INEC will use card readers for the elections. Th commission has taken delivery of more than 130,000 units of these card readers, and we are on schedule to receive the remaining quantity before the end of January.”

He announced that deployment of the cards to states had commenced, adding that about 150,000 polling units have been created across the country.