The National Independent Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Adamawa office has bemoaned the slow rate at which the electorate in the state is collecting unpaid voter cards.
The worry was voiced at a news conference on Friday at the commission’s headquarters in Yola by Mallam Hudu Yunusa, the recently deployed resident electoral commissioner in the state.
He claimed that in the commission’s offices spread across the 21 local government areas, more than 200,000 PVCs that had been registered since 2019 were sitting dormant.
He said that during the registration period for the 2022 election, 36,000 more voters had been added.
Some of the original enrollees have not yet picked up their voter cards.
The importance of voter cards was emphasized, and he made an appeal to the media and other stakeholders to keep the public aware of their importance.
The REC stated that 4104 Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS) and the Result Viewing Portal were delivered to the commission for deployment to 4104 polling places for the elections.
He said that the region’s Northeast Zone Technology Training would be held in batches over the course of a week in Taraba, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, and other states.
Yunusa emphasized that campaigns should be issue-based and made a call to politicians and political parties to conduct themselves with decency, discipline, and decorum.
“We urge the politicians to refrain from name-calling, aggressive remarks, violence, thuggery, and militia activity,” he stated.
The Electoral Act forbids campaigns in places of worship and government buildings, thus the commission would not support such an approach, he continued.
According to him, the commission had updated the staff’s abilities through workshops, seminars, and capacity-building trainings on election-related topics and procedures.
He claims that out of the intended 16,000 temporary workers needed for the elections, the commission has only so far recorded 10,000 applicants.
The commission’s webpage for hiring ad hoc workers is still open through December 14, 2022, therefore he urged interested and qualified Nigerians to apply.
He stated that the commission would consult with interested parties over the voting procedures for IDPs, adding that “we would focus our attention on Madagali, Fufore, and Yola South local government districts.”
From November 12 to November 28, 2022, “We are currently presenting the Preliminary Register of Voters (PRV) nationally for claims and objections,” he revealed.
