The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Ebonyi, has begun distributing over 23,000 permanent voter cards (PVCs) to their respective owners in the state.
INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ebonyi, Dr Joseph Chukwuemeka, stated this in an interview with journalists on Wednesday in Abakaliki.
The PVCs being distributed, he claimed, are from registrations completed during the first and second quarters of the registration process.
He urged prospective voters who registered during the period to collect their voter cards from INEC local government area offices, noting that collecting would not be done via proxy.
The REC cautioned potential registrants to avoid the temptation of double registration, noting that the state had 34,980 invalid registrations in the first and second quarters.
According to Chukwuemeka, who provided a statistical breakdown of first and second quarter registrations, the commission registered over 58, 228 voters.
He stated that 23,248 registrations were valid, while 34,980 were invalid, accounting for 60.1 percent of the total number of registrations during the period.
The REC warned prospective registrants to avoid the temptation of double registration, pointing out that the state recorded approximately 34,980 invalid registrations during the first and second quarter registration periods.
The REC also announced that it has begun an off-line voter registration drive to reach out to people who live in places where there is no reliable phone service.
For the exercise, he said, the commission had dispatched 14 machines to each of the state’s 13 LGAs as well as INEC’s state headquarters.
He said the commission was ready to make sure that every eligible voter was registered, regardless of where they lived.
