The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says 87 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have so far been collected ahead of the upcoming general elections.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Thursday at the maiden briefing in the series of his proposed daily press briefing.
He noted that the current voter register contains over 94 million voters, but stated that the Commission will continue to clean it up with technology going forward.
The INEC chairman further revealed that a total of 1,642,385 polling units and collation center agents of political parties will participate in the elections.
He also disclosed that the Commission has fully recovered from the recent attacks on her facilities in some states.
He raised concerns about vote buying but was hopeful that the vices will be dealt with. He stated that voters are not allowed to go to the voting cubicle with their phones.
Noting that all materials have been distributed to states, he said the sensitive materials are currently being delivered to local government areas. He said that nonsensitive materials were deployed two months ago.
The INEC chairman reiterated that 240 polling units do not have voters, also saying that staff to be deployed for the elections have been trained.
He assured that the commission will closely monitor the conduct of staff and will sanction anyone who compromises the process.
Yakubu also expressed that the Commission is satisfied with the performance of the BVAS after the conduct of a mock accreditation exercise a few weeks earlier. He said that backup technicians for the BVAS have also been deployed for the election.
According to Yakubu, the daily briefing is to update stakeholders as events unfold ahead of and during the election.
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