2023: INEC Takes Measures To Prevent Politicians Buying PVCs

INEC has put measures in place to prevent politicians buying PVCs. 

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The Eagle reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission said the development is to ensure electoral integrity.

INEC also said politicians buying Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to manipulate the elections are engaging in futile efforts.

This was disclosed, on Sunday, by the INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

Okoye urged voters to support the commission’s efforts to ensure free and fair elections in the forthcoming elections.

He said, “We removed polling units from the palaces of traditional rulers; we removed polling units that are near the homes of politicians; we removed polling units that are in shrines; we also removed polling units from places we consider not conducive for electoral business.”

Recall that a non-governmental organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, had alleged that politicians are buying PVCs from poor voters to manipulate the next elections.

Okoye said the Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVAS) will reject biometric data of persons who are not original owners of the traded PVCs.

Read Also: INEC Gives Date For Distribution Of PVCs, Display Of Voters Register

He described the plan by some desperate politicians who are already harvesting PVCs to rig the next election as an impossibility.

“Anybody who is purchasing a permanent voter card is just engaging in an exercise in futility. The only thing any person can do is to make sure the voter does not vote on election day but for you to come to the polling unit on election day with a voter’s card belonging to someone else, and you attempt to vote with it, that is an impossibility, the BVAS will not capture your fingerprint,” Okoye said.