THE QUESTION: Why are INEC’s PVC and voter registration figures reducing in Lagos, Zamfara?

The figures released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) collection as at February 26 contains a few inconsistencies. Released by Kayode Idowu, chief press secretary to Attahiru Jega, chairman of INEC, they differed from the preceding figures in a number of unexpected ways.

THE FEBRUARY 17 FIGURES

On February 18, 2015, INEC released details of the progress of PVC collection as at the previous day, which indicated that 52,233,396 of the 68,833,476 registered voters had collected their PVCs.

Lagos had the highest number of collected PVCs: A total of 3,685,322 (62.40 percent) had obtained theirs in the state. On the opposite end was Bayelsa, which, with a figure of 404,119, had the lowest number of collected PVCs.

On the rate of collection, Zamfara led the pack, as 97.51 percent of registered voters were said to have collected their PVCs, representing 1,458,519 of its 1,495,717 registered voters.

Ogun came in as the state with lowest rate of collection, as only 40 percent, representing 747,556 of 1,829,534, had obtained their PVCs.

In Lagos, 5,905,852 had registered to vote, making it the state with the highest number of registered voters. Bayelsa, at the other end, had the least number of registered voters: 610,373.

THE FEBRUARY 26 FIGURES

On February 27, 2015, INEC came up with another release. As with the previous case, it represented details of PVC collection as at the previous day, February 26, 2015,

This time, INEC said 54,327,747 of the 68,833,476 registered voters had collected their PVC. However, Kano had become the state with the highest number of collected PVCs; a total of 4,112,039 (82.64 percent) people had obtained their PVCs in the state. Bayelsa still had the same number of collected PVCs as it had nine days ago: 404,119.

On the rate of collection, Jigawa led other states, as 97.99 percent of registered voters were said to have collected their PVCs, representing 1,794,646 of the 1,831,276 registered voters in the state.

Ogun maintained its spot as the state with the lowest rate of collection, with 44.20 percent.

With a figure of 5,822,207 Lagos retained its spot as the state with the highest number of registered voters, although the figure of collected PVCs had risen slightly from 3,685,322 to 3,693,355, meaning that 63.44 per cent of the registered voting population had collected PVCs.

TABLE: THE FIGURES

THE DISPARITIES

Lagos: With respect to the two figures released by INEC, the number of registered voters in Lagos state dropped by 83,645 – from 5,905,852 to 5,822,207. Important question: how did the figure registered voters manage to drop? Were multiple registrations discovered, or did registered voters go to INEC to deregister themselves?

Zamfara: As at February 17, the highest collection by percentage was recorded in Zamfara state: a 97.51 percent collection rate. But the update of February 26/27 showed that only 93.42 percent of the 1,495,717 registered voters had now collected their PVCs. This leaves a yet-unexplained deficit of 4.09 percent!

This may mean that 61,223 Zamfara voter cards have vanished from the total number of PVCs collected as at February 17, reducing the figures from 1,458,519 on February 17 to 1,397,296 on February 26.

Despite the drop in the number of registered voters in Lagos, the national total number of registered voters still stood at 68,833,476.

Surely, INEC will release another update on PVC distribution soon. Perhaps the reducing figures will continue on their slide. They may even rise. Only time will tell.