The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will commence issuance of permanent voters’ cards to registered voters before the end of the year.
Prof. Attahiru Jega, the commission’s chairman who disclosed this on Thursday said so far, 43 million cards out of about 73.5 million have been delivered.
Under the first phase, INEC awarded contract for the printing of 40 million cards while the remaining ones will be printed under phase two.
He said the distribution is being delayed so that more cards could be delivered. Jega said “You know Nigerians when you give some States and some were not giving, they will start making political interpretations, so we are putting the mechanism in place to ensure effective distribution,’’.
“This time the distribution will be Nationwide and in all likely hood we will go back to the polling units to ensure that all that are registered in each of the polling units will collect their cards there.
“INEC is very meticulous about the distribution, but we will commence the distribution, as at today, there are 73.5 million temporary voters’ cards awaiting replacement,’’.
“I want to use this opportunity to assure you that INEC will continuously improve on the transparency and credibility of the electoral process, and I assure Nigerians that 2015 elections will be remarkably much better.’’
The INEC boss stressed importance of the permanent cards, saying “The cards will be electronic in nature and will be used for identification, authentication and for voting to prevent multiple voting and frauds”.
