The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) will begin in January 2023.
It also said it would obey the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja on extension of the CVR.
Speaking at a media briefing, yesterday, to unveil the Youth Vote Count awareness campaign in Abuja, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Yahaya Bello, said only PVCs for Nigerians who registered in 2011, 2014 and 2019 are ready for collection.
The campaign, holding at the old parade ground in Abuja and slated to end on Saturday, was organised by INEC, in partnership with the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) and YIAGA Africa.
The event is aimed at mobilising youths for the ongoing registration.
Bello said INEC would support the initiative by deploying more than 50 voter registration machines at the venue, including 150 staff.
He explained: “The CVR will end on June 30, by our own policy. However, the PVCs will not be ready immediately until after the exercise. It is after the exercise that INEC will have time to clean the data.
“Right now the PVCs that are being collected are for those who did their registration in 2011, 2014 and 2019, which we have printed. I want to make it very clear so that people will know that all those that are partaking in this exercise now, if it ends on June 30, will not be able to collect these cards.
“It is a process, and the timeframe will allow us to print these cards, and the collection will not be done until the first month of 2023. Also, PVCs will be collected by persons who registered, not by proxy”.
On the court order restraining the commission from ending the CVR exercise on June 30, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said the commission does not disobey court orders.
Though Oyekanmi was not specific on whether INEC had concluded plan to obey the order or not, he said: “The commission has a history of obeying court orders. And we have been asked to come to court on June 29 and present our case. Therefore, because the matter is in court, I won’t say more than that.”
