Commencement Of CVR & Conclusion

Of PVC Exercises: Intersociety Commends INEC & Calls For

Maximum Success Of Continuous Voters Registration
(Democracy & Good Governance: Onitsha Nigeria, August

20th 2014)-The leadership of International Society for Civil

Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has observed

a remarkable improvement by the Independent National

Electoral Commission (INEC) as it concerns the just ended

Permanent Voters Card distribution exercise conducted in 12

States of Anambra, Ebonyi, Delta, Cross River, Ondo, Oyo,

Kwara, Yobe, Bauchi, Jigawa, Sokoto and the Federal Capital

Territory (FCT). The exercise, originally slated for August

15th to 17th was extended by two days as a result of

protests by some members of rights based CSOs and other

electoral stakeholders in Nigeria including our organization

(Intersociety). The exercise finally ended on Tuesday,

August 19th 2014 with substantial improvement on the part of

INEC. We wish to commend INEC for this appreciable feat and

demand for more improvements in other spheres of its

electoral industry.
From our field observation and other credible open source

accounts, INEC field officers conducted themselves well and

carried out their given assignment diligently. A number of

host State Governments also played commendable complimentary

roles especially in the areas of creation of public

awareness and provision of INEC sanctioned logistics

supports. The most striking thing about INEC's field

officers' diligent conduct was lowering of conditions for

obtaining the PVC as well as friendly disposition towards

PVC applicants. For instance, those that lost their

temporary voter's cards but have their data intact in the

INEC's voters' register, were simply asked to come with

recent passport photograph and made to fill relevant forms,

after which their PVCs were released to them. This is a

clear departure from what it used to be in the past whereby

the affected citizens had to go through hellish conditions.

On the other hand, INEC did not provide concrete answers or

solutions to those with missing names who have their

“TVCs” (temporary voter's cards) intact. They went and

left registration centers disappointed. On the part of

“attentive public” (particularly rights and media
groups, etc), most of them went to bed waiting for “poll

day monitoring exercise”, which is usually lucrative and

externally sponsored. In other words, their advocacy and

monitoring involvement was at its lowest ebb. On the part of

“mass public”, there was an appreciable participatory

improvement in all the qualified segments with the civil

service cadre of the “mass public” taking the lead,

followed by qualified students cadre and artisans/traders.

Artisans/traders participation or compliance improved from

30%/40% to 60% judging from previous PVC exercises in the

country. In other words, about 30% of the PVCs belonging to

living registered voters are yet to be
collected in areas dominated by traders/artisans while the

remaining 10% may most likely belong to “unknown
registered voters” including the dead, the aged, those

with missing names and those maliciously imported from other

States and areas by desperate politicians during the main

exercise in 2011.
In some Local Government Areas with bloated and bogus

registered voters, the number of unclaimed PVCs is very

high. For instance in Idemmili North LGA of Anambra, which

claims to have over 180, 000 registered voters out of

Anambra's total of 1, 776, 167 registered voters;
the number of unclaimed PVCs is most likely to be high

because the LGA was at the center of accusation as one of

the leading areas with bogus registered voters. The

Independent National Electoral Commission has a mandatory

post PVC and CRV duty of making the Nigerian public and

other stakeholders in the country's electoral industry to

know updated number of living, dead and fictitious/fake

registered voters in the country including those scattered

in States, LGAs, and wards and polling units.

In other words, Nigerians would expect satisfactory and

scientific answers from INEC to the following questions:

What is the total number of living registered voters before

the PVC/CVR exercises of 2014? How many registered voters

have died before the two exercises including those killed by

Boko Haram and Fulani insurgencies? What is the total

number of post 2014 PVC and CVR registered voters in the

country including those newly captured in the TVL (temporary

voters list)? How many voters were registered in the 2014

CVR? What is the total number of dead voters including

victims of insurgency/violent homicide? How many registered

voters collected their PVCs in the 2014 exercise? What is

the total number of unclaimed PVCs (permanent voter's

cards)? And what is the fate of the unclaimed PVCs
(including their custody/whereabouts)? Answers to these

graphic questions will assist the Commission in turning out

better and credible NRVs (National Register of
Voters) for Nigeria and Nigerians devoid of roguery and

crooked demography. All the names of the dead, fake or

fictitious voters must be deleted the National Register of

Voters; after which there should be public display and

breakdown of the updated statistics State by State, LGA by

LGA, Ward by Ward and Polling Unit/Booth by Polling

Unit/Booth.
As the CVR (Continuous Voters Registration) exercise

commences in the 12 affected States and the FCT today

(20/08/2014), we wish to renew our call on the INEC to

deploy adequate personnel and machines in all the
registration centers in the country. The Commission should

devise measures to cushion the effects and difficulties that

will hinder easy and accessible registration of unregistered

eligible voters. These measures will include extension of

time marked out for the exercise (five days: 20th to 25th

August), creation of more and closer registration centers

and post CVR exercise continuous registration at designated

and limited centers. The Commission should also resolve

satisfactorily the issue of “missing names” as in
whether those affected will be recaptured in the ongoing CVR

exercise as “new registered voters”. If this is the

case, then the Commission must trace their previous data

from its data bank and get them erased. There is
important need for the Commission to improve in the area of

“transfer of voter's cards” and subsequent erasure of

the applicants' previous data from the Commission's data

bank. Section 13 (4) of the Electoral Act of the Federation

2010, which requires the Commission to delete the previous

data of successful voter's cards transferees has continued

to be observed in total breach.
Finally, we renew our call on those that just turned 18

years of age and others who were unable to register in the

previous registration exercises to ensure that they are

captured in the ongoing registration taking place in the 12

States and the FCT under reference, it is important to

remind them that failure to get registered is a fundamental

violation of Section 24 (e-f) of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999

particularly as it regards to “constitutional duties or

responsibilities of the citizens”. It is also a self

denial of fundamental human rights of rights to vote and

participate in the public governance and affairs of the

country. It is our hope that these suggested measures and

successes recorded so far by the Commission will
maximally be applied in the third phase of the two important

exercises scheduled to hold on dates to be fixed by the

Commission in the States of Katsina, Kano, Plateau, Adamawa,

Borno, Kaduna,
Nasarawa, Niger, Imo, Rivers, Ogun, Edo and Lagos.

Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the

Rule of Law
*Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
[email protected],
[email protected]
+2348100755939 (office only)
* Uzochukwu Oguejiofor, Esq., Head, Campaign & Publicity

Department
* Chiugo Onyekachi Onwuatuegwu, Esq., Head, Democracy &

Good Governance Program