The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cleared more than seventy two million Nigerians to vote in Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
They represent 86.63 per cent of the 84 million registered would-be voters who collected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said yesterday at his daily news briefing.
He said that 72,775,502 million of the 84,004,084 registered voters collected PVCs before the commission withdrew all the 11,228,582 uncollected last week Monday.
The withdrawn PVCs will be kept until after the elections on March 9. Only PVC holders will be allowed to vote.
On INEC’s preparation for the polls, Yakubu said 19 states had fully deployed electoral materials to local government areas.
The remaining states, except Bayelsa, were expected to complete the process yesterday. The process will be concluded today in Bayelsa.
On PVC’s collection, Yakubu noted: “The last date for the collection of PVCs was Monday, 11th February, 2019. Out of 84,004,084 registered voters, the total number of PVCs collected stands at 72,775,502, which represents 86.63 per cent of the total PVCs collected.”
The breakdown and percentages of collection on state by state basis shows Katsina leading other states with 98 per cent PVCs collection rate; Taraba trailing with 97 per cent; Kebbi (95 per cent) and Zamfara 94 per cent). Yobe State recorded 92 per cent collection.
Lagos has the highest number of uncollected PVCs with 1.038 million.
According to INEC’s breakdown of the number of registered voters and collected PVCs, Katsina with 3,230,230 registered would-be voters, 3,187,988 collected PVCs, which is 98 per cent. Taraba states follows closely with 1,777,105, with collection of 1,729,094, which is 97 per cent of total registered voters.
Kebbi and Gombe states have 95 per cent collection rate each. Kebbi with 1,806,231 registered voters has 1,718,180 collected PVCs and Gombe with a population of 1,394,393 voters has 1,335,223 collected PVCs.
Zamfara and Bauchi have 94 per cent collection rate. Zamfara with registered population of 1,717,128, has 1,626,839 PVCs collected. Bauchi with registered population of 2, 462,843, has 2,335,717 PVCs.
Kaduna registered 3,932,492 would-be voters; 3,648,831, representing 92 per cent, collected PVCs.
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