Less than 12 hours to the 2023 general election, INEC has revealed that more than 87,209,007 Permanent Voters Cards were collected. The election which has generated huge interest, particularly among the youth is expected to record a huge turnout.
The collected PVC represents 93.3% of all the registered voters which stood at 93,469,008, leaving 6,259,229 PVC uncollected ahead of the election.
A closer look at the data shows that Lagos State recorded the highest number of PVC collected with more than 6,214,970 followed by Kano State with 5,594,193 million PVC collected.
Ekiti State was the least, in terms of PVCs collected, with 958,052, with Bayelsa State slightly ahead with 1,009,895.
The regional breakdown of PVCs collected showed that North-west led with 21,445,000, followed by South-west with 15,536,213, North-central with 14, 603,62, South-south with 13,284,920, North-east 11,937,769, and South-east with 10,401,484.
Investors King understands that Nigerians will be electing a new President as well as voting for the National Assembly member on the 25th of February 2023.
Among the leading presidential candidates are the candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, People’s Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi and New Nigeria Peoples Party’s candidate (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso.
A number of opinion polls including Bloomberg and Stears have predicted that the candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi will emerge victorious at the polls.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, reiterated that the procedure for voting, as provided in the Electoral Act 2022, made the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) mandatory.
Yakubu stressed that no voter would be allowed to vote without the PVC, insisting that the “no PVC, no voting” rule subsists.
The INEC chairman stressed that vote-buying remained a major threat to the country’s democracy, adding that the commission has worked closely with the law enforcement agencies to ensure that this is eliminated from the electoral process.