THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the 2023 general elections will come with challenges.
Though the Commission restated its determination to surmount the challenges, it noted that “so many of the IDPs are in the houses of friends and relatives and have lost their Permanent Voters Cards and it is next to impossibility to recreate their constituencies and polling units”.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee Festus Okoye, who spoke at a town hall meeting organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), noted “growing insecurity in several parts of the country and the increasing number of internally displaced persons will pose challenges to the conduct of the 2023 general election.
“This is because section 47(1) of the Electoral Act clearly provides that a person intending to vote in an election shall present himself with his voter’s card to a Presiding Officer for accreditation at the polling unit in the constituency in which his name is registered.
“Some of these persons are no longer in their constituencies and can no longer access their polling units and so many of them have lost their Permanent Voters Cards.
“While it is easy to recreate constituencies and polling units in clustered camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP camps), it is next to impossibility to do so for persons staying in scattered locations”.
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