• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Only 41% of Nigerians have collected PVCs – Report

Edo: 1.9 million voters to decide PDP, APC, LP fate in 2023 poll

Forty-one percent of Nigerians who have commenced the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) process have been able to pick up their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), a new report by SBM Intelligence shows.

The findings from the report, as of July 4, 2022, were concluded from a survey poll of 4,001 Nigerians in eight states across the country such as Abuja, Anambra, Bauchi, Cross River, Kano, Lagos, Oyo and Rivers.

“While the current CVR process has recorded significant success in registering voters, there is a big gap between this phase and the collection of PVCs by voters who have registered,” the report stated.

It added that the gap, therefore, represents a real threat of disenfranchisement to the millions who have registered if the necessary interventions to bridge this gap are not carried out immediately.

The report also highlighted two reasons people were unable to pick up their PVCs such as the unreadiness of the cards due to the inability of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff to know if and when they would be ready.

Secondly, the huge crowds at the INEC offices with very few of their staff focused on registering new people in the CVR process instead of giving PVCs to those who had come to collect.

The PVCs issued by INEC, are cards that empower people to vote during electoral polls. And in June 2021, the commission began an online continuous voter registration process across the country in a bid to improve the process and give eligible Nigerians the opportunity to have their PVCs ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Read also: 2023: C’River APC begins PVC evangelism

But most of them have complained about the procedures of obtaining their PVCs which comes with difficulties and hurdles.

On the number of tries it took for the respondents to be successful in collecting their PVCs, only 23 percent of them were successful in their first attempt followed by 37 percent who were successful twice, 20 percent were able to collect thiers thrice and eight percent of them were successful after four attempts.

The rest of three percent and nine percent collected their cards five times and above five times respectively.

“It is a crucial failure point that INEC’s inability to communicate the cards’ readiness to prospective voters made most people to visit their offices more than once in order to get their PVCs, not minding the fact that many have to take time off their work, businesses or studies to do this,” the report noted.

To improve PVCs collection, the report recommends that INEC should include publishing of PVC production, actual collection numbers versus registration numbers in its public communications on a monthly basis to keep it accountable.

“They should include notifications of readiness of PVCs via SMS in its process. Also, they should include a tracking process in its online portal to transparently communicate to the voter where each CVR process is.

“INEC should modify its incentives to its staff to ensure that they 0prioritise PVC distribution, especially as elections approach. CSOs and activists should engage INEC closer on PVC collection status and information to demand transparency and accountability on this important point,” it concluded.