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As Nigeria considers BVAS to streamline elections, debates arise over legislative hurdles, outdated voter registers, and uncollected PVCs. What are the implications for electoral reform?
The Independent National Electoral Commission may introduce a policy to retrieve and destroy Permanent Voter Cards that remain uncollected for a decade.
This may stem from the commission's review of the 2023 general elections and recommendation given.
The move stemmed from the persistent issue of unclaimed PVCs, with over six million cards still uncollected as of the 2023 elections, including many issued as far back as 2015.
Stakeholders in the post-election review recommended that INEC should address the bottleneck of uncollected PVCs by implementing a policy to withdraw PVCs that remain uncollected for extended periods, starting with cards issued in 2015.
The rationale is that these cards are unlikely to be claimed, and their retention clogs the voter management system.
According to INEC, “Following the publication of the Register of Voters, the commission made available the PVCs for collection by voters on December 12, 2022. The exercise was initially planned to end on the 22nd of January 2023. However, the fact that a huge number of registered voters had yet to collect their PVCs forced the commission to extend the deadline to the 5th of February 2023 after devolving the collection to the ward level between January 6-15, 2023 to ease the process.
“The low rate of PVC collection and other related challenges are illustrative of the problem of processing and managing voters in Nigeria. To increase the rate of collection of PVCs, the commission implemented a policy that made it possible for voters to locate their PVCs online and subsequently pick them up. Several CSOs supported the commission’s drive to increase PVC collection by working with INEC’s state/FCT Offices to record all uncollected PVCs and to inform their owners where and how to collect them.
“With support from the development partners, some of the CSOs also created information centres in selected states and the FCT to assist voters locate and collect their PVCs. Despite these efforts, over six million PVCs remained uncollected, many of them dating back to 2015.
"Consequently, one recommendation from the review was that the commission should consider withdrawing PVCs issued in 2015 since it is not clear if the owners will ever collect them,” INEC said.
Also, the commission proposed plans to modernise Nigeria’s electoral process, including the gradual phase-out of PVCs and the introduction of diaspora voting.
With the adoption of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, PVCs may no longer be necessary for voter accreditation. Instead, voters could use computer-generated slips or credentials downloaded from the commission’s website.
“Unlike the SCR, the voters’ register is now resident in the BVAS. The new device does not read and extract voters’ details from the PVC. Moreover, the Electoral Act 2022 has made biometric accreditation (fingerprint or facial) mandatory for voting.
“The utility of the PVC is now limited to voter identification. It is therefore possible to identify voters using their registration slips which obviates the need for PVCs, the cost of producing them, the logistics for their distribution and the fact that voters without them are unable to vote, thus raising serious issues of disenfranchisement. With the BVAS, voters can be identified using their registration slips otherwise known as the Temporary Voter’s Card and accredited biometrically without the need for a plastic PVC.
“However, such a step requires the amendment of Section 47(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 which makes the presentation of the card (PVC) to the PO at the PU mandatory before accreditation and voting,” the recommendation said.
Speaking on the issue, the National Legal Adviser of the Labour Party, Kehinde Edun, said there was need to scarp the voters register, especially if it is confirmed that many of those registered have died.
He said, “I am sure most of those uncollected PVCs must have been as a result of irregularities in the process of registration and all that. If truly people register to vote and register as eligible electorate, they must have collected over a long period, after being given enough time.
“But I believe no system is perfect. So I think destroying them may be in order. If people have not collected over a long period, there is a likelihood those lapses were the result of some irregularities in the process of registration.”
