By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Borno State, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, has said no fewer than 2 million voters are expected to cast their votes in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
He said the elections would hold in all the 5072 polling units, 312 wards of 28 state constituencies, 10 House of Representatives, 3 senatorial districts and 27 LGAs of the state.
Alhaji Ibrahim, who stated this on Friday during a press conference at the Borno state INEC Headquarters, Maiduguri, said there will be migration of some voters from congested polling units to nearby uncongested polling units,
He added that the elections will be conducted under a new electoral Act 2022 which empowered the Commission to deploy more technology in the electoral process.
According to him,” The essence of this briefing is to inform you of the level of preparation of INEC Borno state for the 2023 general elections. I must thank you for your prompt response to this auspicious occasion despite the short notice given.
“As members of fourth estate of the realm in the affairs of our nation particularly the democratic dispensation, your roles in informing, mobilizing and educating Nigerians particularly voters cannot be overemphasized”.
“The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be used in accreditation and transmission of election results. All prospective voters must be accredited via the BVAS as any bypass of the machine will lead to an over-voting thus an imminent cancellation of the results for such polling units.
“All prospective voters must present his/her PVC without which there will be no voting. You may wish to note that the Commission in order to expand voter access to polling units last year, the created additional 1138 polling units in the state thereby decongesting the overpopulated polling units.
“The Commission also embarked on the Continuous Voter Registration from June 2021 to July 2022. At the end of the CVR and after post ABIS (Automated Bimodal Identification System), fresh registration figures stood at 198272. After the exercise, the registration figures for the state rose from 2,315,956 to 2,514,228.
” From November 12th 2022 to November 25th, 2022, the Commission in its bid to further clean up the register embarked on display of the preliminary register of voters for claims and objections,” REC explained
“At the end of the display, a total of 565 claims and 448 objections were received. The results have been collated and sent to the headquarters for further cleansing of the register before a final document is published and becomes ready for the 2023 general elections.
“Members of the press may wish to note that Permanent Voters Card distribution has been ongoing nationwide since last year. Presently there are 114531 Old PVCs that have not been collected. 13715 New PVCs have also not been collected. We have just received 5494 replacements or transfers.
“In the Commission’s drive to bring about massive collection of PVCs, it has approved that rigorous collections will start at the Local Government offices on the 12h December, 2022 to 15th January, 2023. From the 6th January, 2023 to 5th January, 2023, the distribution will be devolved to Registration Areas/Wards level.
“The exercise will be reverted to the Local Government Area offices on the 16th January, 2023 to 22nd January, 2023 when it will be suspended until after the General Elections. The Permanent Voter Cards due for collection include the uncollected PVCs for the 2019 General Elections and PVCs for the continuous Voters Registration held between June 2021 and July, 2022.
“We have just collected PVCs for the January 2022 to July 2022 which have all been issued to Electoral Officers for collection by rightful owners. The old PVCs in the LGA offices have all been scanned to facilitate their collections under the new guidelines for the collection of PVCs. Owners will be contacted to come and collect their PVCs at definite locations.
“The period for the collection of PVCs will be from 9am-3pm daily including Saturdays and Sundays.
I wish to emphasize that there will be no accreditation and voting without PVCs and no electronic voting during the forthcoming elections. However, there will be electronic accreditation and transmission of election results.
The General public will during the forthcoming elections view in real time election results via INEC Result Viewing portal (IREV) (www.ineelectionresults.ng)”, he said.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.
Leave a Reply