‘PVCs Should No Longer be Sole Requirement for Voting,’ INEC Says, Gives Reason

ABUJA____Professor Mahmood Yakubu has said with the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS), the use of the permanent voters’ cards (PVC) as the sole means of identification for voter accreditation during elections should be reviewed. Track News Online reports that Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), spoke on Thursday, December 12, at a meeting with the resident electoral commissioners (RECs) held at the agency’s conference room in Abuja.

INEC has proposed reforms to improve the country’s electoral system, following lessons learnt from the 2023 general election and subsequent off-cycle polls.

The INEC helmsman explained that those who already have the PVCs can still use them to vote. However, going forward, computer-generated slips issued to the voter or even downloaded from the commission’s website will suffice for voter accreditation.

He said: “This will not only save cost, it will also eliminate the issues around the collection of PVCs and the diabolical practice of buying up the cards from voters in order to disenfranchise them.“

Meanwhile, Prof. Yakubu assured that the hard copies of the general election and review reports will be presented to the public shortly. He added: “The softcopy of the report will also be uploaded to our website in earnest. There will also be a detailed presentation of the major highlights of the review report to you at this meeting.”