2023 Polls: 2011 to 2022 Registered PVCs Valid for Voting, Says Delta INEC REC

Ahead of the forthcoming general elections starting with the Presidential on Saturday, February 25th, the Delta State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (lNEC), Rev (Dr) Monday Udoh Tom, has assured eligible voters in the State, that both the voter’s cards issued in 2011 and the current Personal Voters Cards (PVCs) are valid for voting.

The Delta lNEC REC gave this assurance while monitoring the Saturday, February 4th, 2023 Mock Accreditation exercise in Oshimili North and lka North East local government areas.

Rev Udoh Tom who expressed satisfaction at not only the impressive turnout of eligible voters at the various polling units visited but also at the efficiency of the BVAS machine being deployed for the accreditation of voters, said what the electoral umpire has been advocating has come to stay.

While also stating that lNEC had perfected strategies to ensure that the “one man, one vote” mantra succeeds, he urged Delrans to turn out en masse on election days and vote for their preferred candidates, emphasizing that their votes must count.

The INEC REC said, “The card you had in 2011 is still valid because you can see that the BVAS accepted them and accredited those who came with them. The newly issued PVCs are equally valid.”

On fears expressed by some eligible voters that network issues could crop up on election days, the electoral commission helmsman dismissed it by stating that “we don’t use the network to do accreditation. We don’t use the network to vote. We only use the network when we are uploading results. For example, when results are sent from any location and there is a network challenge, if you move a little distance away or even while going to the collation center, the network will return. As long as the result is already uploaded, nothing will stop the result from delivering”.

Eligible voters at the various polling units expressed satisfaction with the BVAS mode of accreditation, disclosing that in less than three minutes, the entire process of accreditation had been completed.

They commended the Commission for deeming it to engage in the mock accreditation exercise nationwide, noting that this and other strategies being put in place by INEC, had proved that the electoral umpire is prepared to hold a free, fair, and credible general elections.

Polling units visited by the state REC included unit 9 ward 001 Okpanam, unit 1 ward 1 Atuma lga in Oshimili North, and unit 1 ward 2 (Omi Primary school), Owa Alero, as well as unit 1 ward 9 Ekpu Primary school, Ute Okpu, both in lka North East local government area.

On the REC,s entourage was the HOD Legal Services Department of Delta INEC, Barr ( Mrs) Angela Ebhosaghe, and the Electoral officers of both Oshimili North and lka North East.