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Tag: Voters Card

  • 2019: INEC uncovers 1,224 death persons in Adamawa register

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has detected 1,224 dead persons’ names in its Adamawa voters’ register for the 2019 general elections.

    Mr Kassim Gaidam, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, disclosed this during the opening of a two-day workshop for North East Zonal lmplementers on election monitoring and support, holding in Yola on Thursday.

    Gaidam said that the statistic was uncovered during the recent display of voters’ register for claims and objections.
    The commissioner said that the exercise was successfully conducted across the state.

    He explained that during the exercise, the commission recorded 2,113 claims and out of the 1,588 objections, 1,224 were reported death.
    The commissioner noted that during the exercise, 38,658 Permanent Voter Cards were collected across the state.

    Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC Chairman, said that the election monitoring and support centre was one of the significant tools used by the commission in planning, monitoring and implementation of support provision to field officers for credible conduct of the elections.

    Yakubu, who was represented by his Special Assistant, Prof. Muhammed Kuna, said that the commission would use all resources at its disposal to ensure fair and free conduct of the 2019 general elections.

    Read Also: 2019 Delta Council boss sues for peaceful electioneering

    He explained that the workshop was to strengthen the commission’s capacities to monitor the mechanisms and activities put in place for smooth conduct of the 2019 general elections, among objectives.

    Also speaking, Mr Samson Fadare, the representative of European Centre for Electoral Support, said the EU was proud to support INEC’s laudable initiative that sought to ensure free, fair and smooth conduct of elections.

    “It will be recalled that European Centre for Electoral Support supported the conduct of the election monitoring support implementer workshops for the off-cycle governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun in 2017 and 2018, among others,” Fadare said.

    He noted that the workshop was the second of its kind designed for zonal implementers and would be organised across the six geopolitical zones to educate and familiarise the functionaries of the commission across the nation.

    It was reported that the workshop was organised by INEC and supported by European Union.

    Five out of the six INEC resident electoral commissioners from North East with their top management staff were participants, excluding Bauchi State.

  • INEC, voters’ card and fundamental rights

    SIR: THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is undoubtedly preparing for the 2019 elections with high hopes towards improving on its statutory mandate to conduct free and fair elections for the nation. Amid vital tools earmarked for use by the commission for the civic duty is the voter’s cards issued to all registered voters which licenses aged citizens to freely participate in the exercise. Incidentally, one of the salient features of the voter’s card is the designation of Polling Unit/Location a holder is to be accredited ahead of exercising the electoral franchise. This therefore makes it static and required permanent positions of electorates without putting into consideration the constitutional provision under the fundamental human rights in the 1999 Constitution, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Section 41 of the Constitution clearly provides for freedom of movement. In contrast, based on electoral rules alongside the voter’s card, a voter who registered in a particular location is ineligible to exercise franchise in another even in adjacent polling units due to the use of on-site voters registers and card. This implies the fixed nature of voter’s register and card at elections is obstructive to free movement of persons since movement from one location to another disenfranchises citizens; a core civic duty. For citizens to be technically barred from exercising civic rights on account of movement to new locations circuitously negates the freedom of movement enshrined in the constitution.

    Without a doubt, the ideas of using voters’ cards and registers for elections are unbeatable; nevertheless, there is a need to go extra miles to make it more flexible and efficient for optimal results. Election of leaders to pilot the affairs of the nation, states and Local Government Areas cannot be a child’s play as that determines the destiny of the people in every four years, and therefore should be given all necessary attentions and commitments.

    By the present arrangement, a citizen that registered in a city but subsequently retired or transferred out of the area or wishes to relocate to place of origin will automatically be disenfranchised till death since the voter’s card is supposedly a permanent card with no room of modifications. From observations, enthusiastic citizens who registered at polling units within places of work distant from residential areas and issued with voter’s card had been ceaselessly disenabled from exercising electoral franchise due to no movement ‘standing orders’ on election days if intra-city distances. More worrisome is a situation where registered voters in a city subsequently wish to vie for elective offices in states of origin but cannot vote. It denotes that even as a candidate, such a citizen cannot cast a vote even for himself. This will essentially require that INEC should review voters’ registers periodically not only to accommodate freshly ripened electorates but for all intents and purposes, update whereabouts of existing eligible electorates who altered milieus to exercise their franchise without hitches. Perhaps, a unique system which will make provisions for registered voters to indicate a choice location to vote in a particular political dispensation contrary to the location hitherto designated during voters’ registration is indispensable to curing the fundamental mischiefs. Due to the blunders, the voter’s card, for many, has redundantly become mere identity card for financial transactions at the detriment of its sacred priority despite volumes of public funds lavished on the project.

    As 2019 election is drawing close, INEC should thoughtfully put a mechanism in place towards ensuring that all willing citizens are enabled to participate in the elections by removing all avoidable hitches created by the existing arrangements on voters’ card and registers. The INEC registers of several years ago are inept to meet the present challenges without insentiently disenfranchising a great population of the electorates. The voter’s card believably was dubbed from the western world which operates virtual/e-voting, and therefore allows the electorates to exercise franchise without restrictions irrespective of locations unlike on-site voting. For free and fair elections to be actualized, all prepared and alacritous citizens ought to be empowered, facilitated to participate in the electoral processes without glitches. Certainly, with good planning, the inadequacies can be systematically rectified. The presumptive eligible voters who were in the recent past technically hindered from participation in the elections on account of these aberrations ought to give rise to concerns to the electoral umpire.

    • Carl Umegboro,

    Lagos.

  • National Identity card to compliment voter’s card, says Buhari

    National Identity card to compliment voter’s card, says Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said the National Identity card would soon complement the permanent voter’s card in elections in the country.

    He spoke after he was registered for his national identity card by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    According to him, it would also confirm Nigeria’s population.

    Buhari said: “I think this exercise is very important to confirm our population and those who are entitled to vote, that is those who are 18 years and above. It will complement the exercise of the permanent voter’s card.

    “So for those who want their votes to count from whichever party or constituency, they should ensure that they and their families are properly captured.”

    The Director General of NIMC, Chris Onyemenam, said the exercise had no time limit.

    He said: “It is a continuous exercise. So every enrolment centre that we have established remains open forever, they are like branches of banks.

    “We are taking deliberate steps to ensure that enrollment centres are opened in each local government. In collaboration with MDAs, we are now extending it to universities. It will also be extended to primary schools and hospitals.

    “With the cooperation we expect from INEC, we are meeting INEC today, it will be extended even further.

    “Because of the records of births and deaths that are the primary responsibility of the Nigerian Population Commission, it will even become wider because there are more centres for the registration of births and deaths.

    “Once a centre is established, it remains there and people can go and enroll at their convenient time. They will will do the pre-enrollment first because going to any centre for the biometric data capture.

    On how many Nigerians had been captured so far, he said: “On our data base, we have a record of seven million. In collaboration with other agencies, in the next three months or so, we hope to quadruple that number. In the past, the private sector was expected to perform that role, so government did not focus on that.

    “The close to seven million that we have in our data base is the product of the pilot scheme that we embarked upon to demonstrate the value of the scheme.

    “Now that the MDAs are going to step up the harmonisation, the data base will be populated in a matter of weeks.

    “As a matter of fact, we are at the stage of migrating the data from the Bank Verification Number and that is about 20 million.

    “We are truly on course and appreciate Mr. President for the recent directive that biometrics data bases in government agencies should be expeditiously harmonised.”

  • Why voter’s card distribution was flawed in Rivers, by Daniel-Kalio

    Why voter’s card distribution was flawed in Rivers, by Daniel-Kalio

    Chief Dele Daniel-Kalio, a politician from Okrika, Rivers State, spoke with NWISI ROSEMARY in Port-Harcourt, the state capital, on the ‘failed’ voter’s card distribution by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), despite the mass mobilisation of residents for the exercise.

    Why did you embark on the mobilisation of the riverrine areas for the voter’s registration?

    I have been in active politics in the past 35 years, especially in Port Harcourt where I reside. I know that there is the tendency for residents of Port Harcourt to want to go back to their various home towns and villages to participate/carry out any national exercise, such as the voter registration and census. So, there is the need to sensitise them with the views of re-orientating them.

    What are the methods employed for this enlightenment?

    I started by organising nucleus meetings with community and religious leaders within the Port Harcourt Constituency (Port Harcourt South) to sensitize them on this issue, with the aim of passing through them to also sensitize their members,  before I formally moved into organising town-hall-like meetings with community members.

    I was able to cover all the waterfronts in  the constituency, to educate dwellers on the importance of Permanent Voter Card (PVC), collection and need for those who are yet to register not to travel out to do so, especially as the essence is to enable one participate in elections and there is one very close to us.

    I covered Egbema, Rex Lawson, Enugu, Ogu, Okrika, Dockyard, Bundu Water Fronts among other communities.

    During the 2011 voters registration, many people, including elected leaders, travelled to their respective communities to participate in the exercise and also encouraged their supporters to do same,  and even  rolled out free buses to assist them go home and do that, how do you reconcile that with your sensitization  message.

    I am aware of this. That is why I consider it necessary to give the people the right education. This is because, moving outside you place of where you live, work, do business and your children go to school for your community where you barely visit, but ostensible don’t reside, to register for election, elect leaders or even go and be counted during censuses is counterproductive to governments’ plan for the area.

    If people go home during election and the population survey, it will undermine the population of their actual place of stay, which will subsequently affect governments’ planning for provision of social amenities in the area.  This is because during planning, provision will be made based on the population captured in the areas in these major national exercises (voters registration and census) whereas it is not true most residents of the area had travelled out to participate in the exercise, so when they return and key into the provision made with limited population it weights down on the amenities, resulting in the allegation of governments’ insufficient provision in these places.

    But, if people stay in the places they live and earn a living and pay taxes to participate in these programmes, it makes the job of the government easy and also enable tax payers enjoy the fruit of their taxes, because the government will know the accurate number of nursery, primary, secondary school age children in the area to enable it know the number and sizes of each of the schools to build in a particular area, know the amount of power and size of transformer to provide for residents there, the size of roads needed among others.

    These things would now be provided in a manner that they will be adequate rather than the present estimated provision which ends in rationing of every amenity.

    Now, what are the catchment areas of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Port Harcourt Constituency 2 (Port Harcourt South).

    The Rivers State House of Assembly stretches from Azubie by Port Harcourt zoo, through Okuru-ama, Abuloma, Amadi-ama, Marine Base, Old Port-Harcourt Town to Borikiri and terminated at Ikpukulobie. There are five electoral wards spread in the constituency.

    According to 2011 voters registration records, Port Harcourt Constituency 2, recorded a total of 179, 958 voters in the following order, Ward 4(22129), ward 5(44421), ward 6 (25210), ward 7(29905) and ward 20(58293).

    How was the response?

    Impressive and enthusiastic.  I discovered that meeting the people one -on -one with the appropriate, message, education does great magic, it whips up interest in people, then they knew the need for them to go for their PVC and those that had not registered came to the understanding of why they should register.

    Prior to the move, they did not know the reason they should sacrifice their time, business as the case may be for PVC collection, or even go and register for it, when according to them they don’t have the feel of the presence of any government in power either in their lives as law abiding citizens or as a community.

    They were enraged with the system and government, they did not want to hear about the election and the collection of PVC, but after the sensitisation, with the help of other public spirited individuals who found what I was doing worthwhile, we were able to mobilise financially to get some very old and the financial incapacitated ones to their polling units to obtain their cards.

    Is there a concern for marginalisation?

    There is always room for improvement regarding recognition and presence from all levels of government. Where there is increased performance from a unit or group, the demand for commensurate recognition and presence is always justified.

    From the statistics give earlier, it is obvious that the population of eligible voters in this constituency is what every sincere politician vying for elective in the constituency should crave their supports/votes, it is more than the population of some Local Government Areas in the state and some other states of the Federation;  also any politician who out of myopic view and dependence on shortcuts, neglect this whopping number, has lost great fraction of votes that could give him or her a win.

    What I am saying in essence is that anyone seeking any elective political office from the Presidency, the governorship, down to the constituency election, who does not articulate what he has for the people of Port Harcourt Constituency 2 is on his own.

  • PVC distribution:  Minister commends INEC

    THE Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr. Steve Oru, has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the orderly management of the ongoing collection of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) exercise across the country.

    He spoke shortly after collecting his PVC at his polling unity in Otovwodo Primary School in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.

    Oru described the exercise as very peaceful and orderly.

    “So far, the exercise is peaceful and people are orderly and not unruly.

    “It is a good process being managed by INEC. I wish to congratulate them for having a peaceful exercise which is for the promotion of democracy,” he said.

    He advised Nigerians to turn out “to make sure that they are not disenfranchised to collect their permanent voters’ card before it expires today.”

    According to him: “Those people who wish it away that they don’t have time are only trying to reduce the advancement of our democracy in Nigeria.”