PVC REGISTRATION: ANAMBRA RESIDENTS LAMENT UNDUE DELAY IN THE PROCESS
REPORTER: OBY ARINZE
Few days to the deadline for the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC) registration, some residents in Onitsha and environs have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to increase its manpower to help facilitate the process of making the exercise easier for the prospective voters.
According to some registrants, who spoke with Radio Nigeria, the process takes time to capture a few people.
They, however, called on INEC to extend the deadline to enable eligible voters to register.
The Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) enables registered voters to exercise their civic right, that is, to vote in the general election.
Voter registration is intended to ensure that everyone entitled to vote could do so, to prevent ineligible persons from voting, and to guard against multiple voting by the same individual.
The current rush to secure PVCs is attributed to the deadline set by INEC for the conclusion of the exercise, which was fast approaching and people, mostly youths, came out in their large numbers to participate in the exercise.
Among the registration areas visited, were Onitsha North and South; Idemili North and South Local Government Areas INEC offices.
It was observed that there was a mammoth crowd at the areas visited.
Some of them, who spoke, lamented that they left their houses as early as 5am to get registered, while many others said this was their second or third time of visiting, without being captured.
Respondents, Uchenna Nwigwe, Obiorah Somkene, John Muolokwu, Emmanuel Ugochukwu and Anthony Nwokike were all pleading that more machines and workers should be engaged.
“People are turning up but the problem we are having, is giving us attention, we need more hands for people to go back to their various workplace.
“We have enough crowd here, show that people are eager to vote,” they said.
An elderly man in his 80’s spotted at the registration venue, Ogbuefi Akunwata Uyanwa, who wanted to transfer his PVC from his former residence to the current one, said he had been there for hours, as he commended youths for coming out in large numbers.
“People are many, but the workers are really trying. I commend the youths in a special way, initially they don’t know what PVC is all about but now they know,” the octogenarian said.
Another elderly man, who was also on transfer, lamented that when he registered initially that it was not as stressful as this.
“They said i should go to cybercafé and do it online but the people that have done online said it was not successful, the whole thing is jam-packed, nothing is going,” he complained.
For her part, Mrs. Christina Obiorah, who also came for registration, lamented that the exercise was very stressful but that she would not give up.
“People have been here since 5am, my advice to everyone is for us to exercise patience,”she pleaded.
One of the coordinators of the exercise at Onitsha North Local Government Area, Comrade Arinze Ifeagina, said the exercise was moving on smoothly, though with slight delays due to less manpower.
He stated that they had four working machines with more than one thousand people to be freshly registered and over 300 people to be transferred, saying that the system was not enough to entertain the crowd.
“I think we can meet up with the deadline, because each day, we leave here by 5.30pm, the system opens by 9am. With the coordination, we can do so many in a day. So with functioning ten systems, i think we can cover up to two thousand before 30th of this month.
“Forty-five percent of the people here are on double registration and I tell them the implications, that you will end up having an invalid card,” the INEC registration coordinator explained.
The cheery news is that INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Anambra State, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, while addressing journalists on the state of the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), announced the creation of 25 new registration centres in addition to 22 earlier created this June across the state.
He said this was to address the observable surge by the residents to enroll for CVR.
Radio Nigeria also observed that some petty trader used the opportunity to make brisk businesses, including the sale of carbonated drinks, snacks and water.
EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU
