Mr Mutiu Agboke, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Oyo State says more than 900,000 Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) are still with the commission because the registered voters have not claimed them.
Agboke made this known on Thursday in Ibadan when the House of Representatives Committee on INEC visited him as part of the committees’ oversight functions.
He said that in spite of the fact that the commission adopted series of strategies, the number of uncollected PVCs had remained high.
The commissioner gave assurance that the commission would continue to reach out to owners of the unclaimed PVCs so that the eligible voters would participate in the forthcoming general elections.
He told the committee that only 47 registered political parties would participate in the 2019 elections in the state.
According to him, 351 registration areas/wards; 4,783 polling units; and 5,620 voting points are in 33 local government areas of the state.
The commission was advised to conduct transparent, free and credible elections in 2019.
Mr Victor Akinjo, a member of the committee, who is representing Ilaje/Eseodo Federal Constituency, said INEC should do all within its powers to stick to its constitutional responsibilities of an unbiased umpire.
“INEC’s constitutional responsibilities have nothing to do with political parties but Nigeria as a nation,’’ Akinjo said.
He urged INEC staff to adopt new methods that would improve the performance of the commission in the forthcoming elections, saying that “ democracy is dynamic anywhere in the world’’. (NAN)
