The Independent National Electoral Commission announced on Tuesday that the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards to new applicants across Edo State local government areas will commence on Wednesday.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, stated, “As earlier announced by the commission, Permanent Voter Cards from the recent Continuous Voter Registration in Edo State would be available for collection at two levels. First, across all the 192 wards from Thursday, 22, to Monday, 26, August 2024. Secondly, in our 18 LGA offices.”
Olumekun noted that the collection at the ward level had been concluded, with 125,928 PVCs collected within five days, representing 68.3% of the 184,438 new cards issued during the recent Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
He said, “The commission is pleased to announce the conclusion of the collection at ward level. Learning from the lessons of the previous collection of PVCs, the commission has carefully packaged all the PVCs by Poling Units, Wards and LGAs, along with direct communication to voters about the availability of their cards.”
He added, “In addition, we contacted them using the addresses provided at the time of registration. As a result, out of the 184,438 new PVCs available, 125,928 cards were collected by voters, representing 68.3 per cent of the total. This is the highest percentage of PVCs collected in five days since the commission introduced the CVR ahead of off-cycle governorship elections in 2015.”
Olumekun announced that the collection process will now move to INEC’s 18 Local Government Area offices in Edo State, where voters can pick up their PVCs from August 28 to September 8, 2024.
He stated, “Meanwhile, the collection will resume in our 18 LGA offices in Edo State from tomorrow, Wednesday, 28th August 2024 and end on Sunday 8th September 2024. We appeal to the remaining voters to pick up their PVCs in person from our LGA offices. The commission reiterates its policy that no cards will be collected by proxy. Detailed information on the locations of our LGA offices is already available on our website.”