A specialist in substantial populace enrollment arrangements, Mr Olusola Obasa, has blamed the choice of the Independent National Electoral Commission to permit just the utilization of perpetual voter cards for casting a ballot in the 2019 elections.
He said INEC’s emphasis on the utilization of PVC disenfranchise many registered voters, focusing on that the procedure for collecting the PVC was excessively repetitive, which he said influenced it incomprehensible for some enlisted voters to collect theirs before the February 11 due date.
He in this way approached the commission to permit the utilization of transitory voter cards, saying ownership of the TVC meant that the individual had enrolled to cast a ballot.
Despite the fact that INEC is yet to discharge the quantity of uncollected PVCs after the due date, the commission had on January 5, 2019, uncovered that around eight million PVCs were yet to be distributed.
Saturday PUNCH reported on Thursday that, Obasa, who said he planned and executed the Ugandan Photographic Voter Registration System among other related arrangements he had intended for different nations crosswise over Africa and past, clarified that INEC’s choice had effectively disappointed a huge number of qualified voters. This, he included, would intensify voter lack of concern.
He said, “The 2019 elections can be free but can it be fair? The answer is no. I say this as an expert in Large Population Registration Systems. INEC claims to have 84 million registered voters, but do we actually have 84 million eligible voters that can vote? No. And INEC created this problem by itself.
“INEC got Nigerians to register and gave them a temporary voter card and then turns around to say that unless one has the PVC one cannot vote. That makes no sense. Why did they even bother to give the temporary ID card when it will be a useless document? About a week ago, I went to collect mine and I thought it would be a walk in the park, but it was a herculean task. Many people still couldn’t collect theirs until it closed.
“There are two solutions; INEC should either postpone the election until all PVCs have been collected or it should allow the use of TVC.
“The strength of the system is in the biometric database and not the voter ID card.”