INEC: We don’t oppose voting without PVC — but the law must first be amended

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it does not oppose voting without a permanent voter card (PVC).

In 2024, Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman, proposed the use of computer-generated slips for voter accreditation during elections.

Yakubu said that with the introduction of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS), the use of PVC as the sole means of identification for voter accreditation on election day should be reviewed.

Rotimi Oyekanmi, INEC spokesperson, told TheCable that the law must be amended before other means of identification can be considered for voting purposes.

“During the post-election review meetings, some stakeholders suggested that since INEC has the information and biometrics of registered voters in its database, any form of ID and not solely the PVC should be acceptable for voting on election day,” he said in a chat on Thursday.

“Now, the commission is not opposed to the suggestion.

“However, the current law makes the possession and presentation of the PVC by each voter at the polling unit on Election Day compulsory. That law needs to be amended.”

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

However, Victor Opatola, a legal practitioner, faulted INEC’s stance that the law needs to be amended to enable voting without a PVC.

The lawyer referenced the 2023 judgement of a federal high court in Abuja ordering INEC to allow two Nigerians to use their temporary voter cards in the March 18 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.

Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, challenged INEC on the position that only PVCs can be used in an election.

The court ruled that neither the 1999 constitution nor the electoral act contained any language stipulating that only PVCs could be used for voting and that, instead, Section 47 of the statute allowed for the use of a voter’s card.

The electoral commission subsequently approached the court of appeal in Abuja, asking it to set aside the judgement of the federal high court.

INEC held that by the combined provision of Section 47 (1) & (2) of the Electoral Act 2022 and paragraph 5(IV) of INEC regulations and guidelines for the conduct of elections 2022, “a person is eligible to vote at an election conducted by the commission, if he or she presents a valid PVC at the polling unit in which he is registered as a voter”.