February 03, (THEWILL) – The Independent Electoral Commission, (INEC) Ebonyi state, has disclosed that the state now has additional 134, 641 registered voters.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, (REC) Dr. Chukwuemeka Joseph Chukwu, made the disclosure in Abakaliki, during a visit by members of the National Association of Women Journalists, (NAWOJ) Ebonyi State chapter.
Chukwu, noted that the commission from July 28, 2021 to date has a total number of 72,993 pre-registered voters while complete registration is 59,648, bringing the total number of registered voters to 134,641.
He charged those who are yet to register to take advantage of the ongoing registration to do so, while urging those whose PVCs were rejected during the last election, or those who relocated to another state to go for PVC update.
“What you need to do is to check your PVC to know if you have any issue. Either the card reader rejected your card and you couldn’t cast your vote during the last elections, or you relocated or changed your name, you will come and do update,” he added.
He noted that the registration is of two categories, stating that they have online and physical registration.
“In Ebonyi here we have 15 centers, two in our state office here and 1 in each of the INEC centers in the 13 local government areas of the state. You can go to any of our centers and register. This registration is of two categories, one is online, the second is physical registration.
“When you do online, you go to any of our offices and complete registration. If you don’t have time to do on-line, you go to any of our offices and do the registration or the update. For instance, when you relocate to another State, you will have to do voter transfer to enable you vote in your present location. You can do that online and go to any of our offices to complete the exercise and you would be issued a new temporary voters card, when the PVC is out you will get yours.
“During the 2019 election your face maybe not be bright in the picture and you want to do update, you can now go to any of our offices they will re-snap you, do the update. If an alphabet is missing in your name or where you are leaving is far from where you used to vote and you want to change to a more closer polling unit, this is the opportunity to correct it. Be it registration, update, no payment is required,” Chukwu stated.
He appealed to the public to disregard claims that the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in the possession of citizens have expired.
“The issue of PVCs of those who registered from 2011 being expired is false. Permanent Voters Card, does it expire? We know what it means for something to be permanent, it doesn’t expire unless the bearer dies, or the card went missing or got burnt, we can now call for renewal just like what we are doing at the moment in line with the ongoing continuous voters registration.
“What we are doing in this regard is that 2011 downward or upward remains PVC, we will use it and vote till thy kingdom come,” he maintained.
The Commissioner disclosed that recently there was polling units expansion in the state, stating that there are over 2,800 polling units in the state presently.
Earlier, NAWOJ Chairperson, Comrade Nkechinyere Oginyi, in her address solicited for partnership between the electoral umpire and the women organization.
Nawoj advocated for gender inclusiveness in all INEC activities before, during and after elections.The group, however, charged INEC to give political parties in the state a level playing ground during the election.
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