Off-cycle polls: INEC says over 230,000 PVCs uncollected in Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says 239,746 permanent voters’ cards (PVC) have not been collected in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi ahead of the governorship elections.

The off-cycle governorship elections are scheduled to hold in the three states on November 11.

In a statement on Monday, Sam Olumekun, INEC national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, said the commission met to review the ongoing preparations for the polls.

Olumekun said INEC is publishing the comprehensive information of collected and uncollected PVCs in the three states on polling unit basis.

“The information also gives the distribution of the polling units by Local Government Areas, Registration Areas/Wards, the names of the polling units, their code numbers, number of registered voters and the number of collected as well as uncollected PVCs,” the statement reads.

“Equally significantly, the list provides the names and locations of the two polling units in Bayelsa State and 38 in Imo State without registered voters.

“The breakdown for the three States indicates that out of 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State, 1,017,613 have collected their PVCs and 39, 249 are uncollected.

“In Imo State, the number of registered voters is 2,419,922 out of which 2,318,919 have collected their PVCs and 101,003 are uncollected, while in Kogi State, out of 1,932,654 registered voters, 1,833,160 have collected their PVCs and leaving 99,494 uncollected.

“The detailed information has been uploaded to the Commission’s website www.inecnigeria.org

“We appeal to all stakeholders to note the information. Any vote from a polling unit in excess of the number of PVCs collected amounts to over voting. The number of PVCs collected shall be used for the computation of the margin of lead principle.”