Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have called for the extension of timeframe for collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in Lagos state, saying that failure to do so amount to deliberate disenfranchising of many eligible voters by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a statement jointly signed by the CSOs on Wednesday, they noted that “A large number of eligible voters whose names are in the Voters’ Register turned up at INEC’s offices to collect their PVCs with their registration slips, only to be sent away empty handed by INEC officials on the grounds that their PVCs were “Not Found” or they were “Omitted”.
The CSOs include Enough is Enough Nigeria, CivicHive, ConnectHub, Community Life Project (CLP) (aka ReclaimNaija) and Women Advocates and Research Development Centre (WARDC).
They faulted INEC closure of collection of PVCs, citing that whereas INEC stopped the collection of PVCs on Sunday, February 5th, the Electoral Act clearly states in Section 16(1) that, “The Commission shall design, cause to be printed and control the issuance of voters’ cards to voters whose names appear in the register.”
Therefore, they maintained that “INEC owes ALL duly registered citizens who are in INEC’s Voters Register their PVCs so that they can vote!
The CSOs lamented on the number of persons who have not collected their PVCs in Lagos saying, “Some of those affected made multiple unsuccessful trips on different dates to INEC’s offices. INEC assured some of these voters that their cases would be escalated and they would be contacted to pick up their PVCs.
“The reality is that registered voters showed up to collect their PVCs and INEC failed to honour its mandate.”
They stated that Commission is depriving Lagosians of their right to participate in the electoral process due to observed lapses in the PVCs collection including late Arrival of PVCs, Absence of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for PVC Collection, Collection by Proxy, Underutilization of CSOs and Volunteers.
According to the CSOs, “PVC Collection started on December 12, 2022. INEC issued a statement on January 24, 2023 that it had received its final batch of cards. However, INEC Lagos officials kept promising citizens that more cards would arrive. This was reinforced on January 31, 2023 during a CSO engagement with an INEC Lagos official.
“Absence of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for PVC Collection: Despite repeated requests, INEC failed to make the SOP public, therefore: Citizens did not know that the escalation process included filling out a Complaint Form and did not insist on INEC doing so in cases where it was not offered.
Citizens did not know that each location was supposed to have a Collection Form that should be duly signed by the voter upon collecting his or her PVC. But this was not the case in all collection centres. Instead of the Collection Form, a register was opened in some locations where voters manually wrote their names and signed.
“Collection by Proxy: Whereas collection by proxy was supposed to be unlawful, we have several examples of this happening and this could be a contributory factor to the cards of other citizens not being found.
“Underutilization of CSOs and Volunteers: In several locations, INEC’s staff were overwhelmed by the crowd leading to a very slow pace of PVC sorting and distribution. Volunteers offered to help sort cards but they were not allowed.
“INEC has the information of the owners of the cards that are still in its possession and this must be made public. It is only fair that INEC takes responsibility for ensuring citizens who had made spirited efforts to collect their PVCs can collect them and vote.
“We offer to work with INEC to have adequate volunteers and security to arrange the cards and attend to citizens that show up to pick up their cards.
“INEC and its partner CSOs worked hard to ensure that citizens came out to register to vote and engage in the electoral process. In all its communication, INEC said that it would print cards for all registered voters so they could vote.
“Therefore, it would not only be unfair, but also illegal to then deliberately deny any duly registered voter the opportunity to vote.
“We demand that INEC extend PVC Collection in Lagos to Sunday, February 12, 2023 as voters should not be penalised for INEC’s administrative lapses.”
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