From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Those who registered for permanent voter’s card (PVC) between January to June 2022 can now proceed to their respective local government areas to pick up their cards, Administrative Secretary, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Auwal Muhammed Mashi told Kaduna residents.
Mashi spoke in Kaduna during a media parly with political parties and senatorial, house of representatives and state house of assembly candidates on electioneering campaign, organized by Centre for Communication and Social Development (CCSD) in collaboration with Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women (LANW) under We-You project.
The INEC man who lamented the slow pace of the collection of the available PVC by applicants who are mostly fresh and transfer applicants added that about 570,000 prospective voters mostly registered within the 13 months registration window.
“The collection of the PVC is low at the local government level. I remember that an organisation took us to court in continuous registration.
“So, if people can demonstrate th zeal they applied during the registration, what stops them from going to collect their cards? He asked.
He further explained that a lot of changes are being injected into electoral conduct in the country boasting that ,”the 2023 elections will be the best not only in Nigeria but in the whole of Africa.
“We want to call on political parties, political candidates and their supporters to embrace peaceful electoral campaigns and election in the coming days, weeks and months. We want to see winners and losers alike congratulating and embracing one another”, he said.
Earlier, Project Officer, We-You, Hannatu Ahuwan said, the collaborating organisations expected the political parties and their candidates to mobilize young people and women to go and collect their PVCs.
“We want them to focus on positively engaging youths and women through electoral campaign, we want candidates to make their campaign issue-based and not verbal or physical attacks on oppositions.
“We want these political actors to run violence-free campaigns within their camps and at the same time keeping these campaigns within the ambit of the 2022 electoral law.
“Once, we get the elections right, we are hopeful that we have credible leadership and right kind of people and the proper position of power, and if the right people are in a position of power we assume that the issues of corruption and unemployment will be a thing of the past though it may take some time”.