As the scramble for political positions hots up ahead of 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says that an aggregate of 234,037 voters are yet to claim their Permanent Voter Cards in Ekiti State.
The new INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti, Prof. Ayobami Salami, gave the information in Ado Ekiti during a visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ Secretariat in Ado Ekiti.
Salami stated that a total of 754,886 had collected their PVCs, out of 988,923 total registered voters in the state, which he said represents 24% of registration in the state .
He said in preparatory to the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Ekiti, INEC has 16 local governments areas, 177 Registration areas, and 2,445 polling units to deal with .
Salami cleared the air on the insinuation that technological innovation invented by INEC may be jettisoned for the conduct of the 2023 polls, saying the Bimodal Voters Authentication System, BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing Portal would be fully applied in all elections.
Salami urged registered voters to break away from the culture of long-standing apathy, and participate actively in the 2023 general elections.
On the recent court’s judgement directing INEC to continue with registration of voters, Salami said that INEC would comply whenever the court judgement is served.
The Professor of Environmental Science, added that the commission would build on the success recorded in the June 18, 2022 governorship election in Ekiti, and other past polls adjudged to be transparent and acceptable.
Commenting, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ekiti State Council, Comrade Rotimi Ojomoyela promised the commission the union’s support.