INEC: No PVC, no voting in 2027
INEC: No PVC, no voting in 2027
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified that, despite the advanced features of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), Nigerians will still be required to present their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to cast their ballots under the current electoral law.
This clarification comes amid discussions from post-2023 general election review meetings, where some stakeholders suggested that voters should be allowed to use other forms of identification on election day, citing BVAS’s growing reliability in authenticating voter identities.
Speaking on Saturday, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said the commission had noted the proposals but was bound by the provisions of the Electoral Act.
“INEC is not considering allowing voting without the Permanent Voter Card. That suggestion came up during our post-2023 review meetings with stakeholders, where it was proposed that since the BVAS already contains details of registered voters per polling unit, Nigerians should be able to vote with any form of ID, including the PVC, on election day,” Oyekanmi explained.
He noted that while BVAS had significantly improved the voter accreditation process by verifying identities through facial and fingerprint recognition, its existence didn’t override statutory provisions.
“The commission is not opposed to this idea but some aspects of the law, like Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022 which makes it mandatory for a voter to present a voter card at the polling unit, would need an amendment,” he added.
Currently, the law stipulates that no person shall
be allowed to vote at a polling unit unless they present their PVC and are verified by the technological devices provided by INEC.
This legal requirement has remained a source of concern as nearly six million PVCs remain uncollected across the country.
As of August 24 this year, data from INEC website and its official, 5,965,451 voter cards were yet to be picked up by their owners.
To tackle voter apathy and logistical challenges, INEC restarted the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise last month.
The online registration phase kicked off on August 18, followed by the physical registration on August 25.
The CVR is designed to capture new voters and enable those who are yet to collect their PVCs from past exercises to do so ahead of upcoming elections.
