A former presidential aspirant, Chief Charles Udeogaranya has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow registered voters who were unable to pick their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), to use their government-issued photo identity cards like the National Drivers Licence, International Passport, and National ID card/slip to vote.
Udeogaranya said that Section 118 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had already empowered INEC to conduct the registration of voters, the direction, supervision, and conduct of elections.
He added that the commission, therefore, lacked any tenable excuse to stop registered voters with verifiable government-issued photo IDs not to exercise their civic rights to vote in an election conducted by the same commission.
He argued that Section 118 of the Constitution had already empowered INEC to conduct the registration of voters, the direction, supervision, and conduct of elections. The commission, therefore, lacks any tenable excuse to withhold voters registered by the Commission with verifiable Government-issued photo ids, not to exercise their civic right to vote in an election conducted by the same commission.
Udeogaranya underscored that his position to allow registered voters without PVC to vote in the upcoming election is further enhanced by Section 10 (2) of the Electoral Act 2022, which recognises the importance of government-issued photo IDs as means of identification in the continuous voter registration and legitimises their use in election accreditation process under Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022, which should rightly be amended to reflect the congruence.
He reminded INEC that voter disenfranchisement is a sacrilege, and an infringement on the rights of millions of Nigerians, particularly when registered voters had visited collection points several times and the commission is still unable to deliver PVCs to them.
