68.8m valid voters registered as polls will hold in North East – INEC
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday presented 68,833,476 eligible voters for the 2015 general elections, saying candidates should conduct themselves peacefully.
Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, who made the presentation to 23 political parties present at the commission headquarters in Abuja, said “In line with provisions of the law, the commission has just announced the publication of the register of voters that will be used for the February 2015 general elections. The total number of voters registered for the election is 68,833,476.”
Jega stated that in the next few days, INEC will put on its website, details of the figure, adding that Federal Government has made available to INEC all funding required for the general elections.
“For the presidential elections, there are 14 candidates duly nominated by political parties. Senatorial, there are 739 candidates and for the House of Representatives election, there are 1,780 candidates. The list of nominated candidates for state elections, gubernatorial and House of Assembly will be published January 27.”
Jega maintained that INEC has made public, more than 38 million permanent voter cards (PVC), which have been collected by duly registered voters across the country, “but that leaves many PVCs yet to be collected.”
According to him, “We have directed Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to further decentralise distribution to the ward level, we have also extended the time for distribution, which is now 8.30am to 5.30pm.”
He emphasised that possession of PVC is a strict condition for anyone intending to vote in the 2015 elections; even as he noted that contrary to doubts being peddled by some persons, INEC will use card readers for the election, saying more than 130,000 units of the card readers have been received and the commission is about to receive the remaining before the end of January.
On election in restive north-east states, Jega insisted that INEC has always said it is preparing to conduct elections in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, adding that INEC is finalising arrangement to enable Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) to vote.
