New voters may reach 11m before 2019 — INEC

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said yesterday that all the nearly eleven million voters that may be registered before the 2019 general elections will collect their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs).

Prof. Yakubu said this during a sensitization outreach at the University of Abuja Campus on the on-going continuous voter’s registration exercise.

“We have opened registration centre at the campus and I want to urge the university community to utilise the opportunity provided to them. Let me reassure that those who registered in 2017 have started collecting their cards in the first quarter of 2018 ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“The four million that registered in 2017 and another two million that registered in 2018 will all collect their PVCs. The 11 million Nigerians that will be registered before 2019 will all collect their PVCs,” he said.

The INEC chairman said the commission had perfected arrangements for the deployment of ballot papers printed in Braille to ensure that visually impaired persons vote without stress. He added that it was part of the efforts to make the democratisation exercise all inclusive for People Living with Disabilities (PWDs) in the country.

Prof. Yakubu, who also said that the electoral body had started providing magnifying glasses for the albinos during the Anambra State governorship election, stated that wheel chairs would also be given to other physically challenged persons.

In his speech, the Executive Director, European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES), Fabio Bargiacchi, canvassed that the youths be carried along in every discourse about development.

Bargiacchi, who said the youth constituted 60 per cent of the country’s population, added that their energy should be harnessed, as their power could make a difference in politics.

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof. Michael Umale Adikwu, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics, Prof. EJV Nwanna, applauded INEC and the European Centre for Electoral Support for organising the programme.