From: Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, commenced the continuous process of voters registration exercise for eligible voters across the 27 local government areas in Jigawa State.
Speaking at the flag-off, INEC National Commissioner in charge of Kano,Jigawa and Katsina zone, Engineer Abubakar Nahuche said, the primary aim of the exercise is to effect the registration of eligible voters and distribution of permanent voters card’s (PVCs) to voters who could not register during the last registration exercise to give them chance to participate in the forthcoming general election.
He explained that the exercise would update the voters register to reflect people on transfers and those that are dead in accordance with section 10 of electoral Act 2010 as amended which requires the commission to update the voter’s register and make it available to every political party within sixty days after each year of registration.
According to him, the exercise would hold concurrently across the 774 local government of the federation and carry on till the conclusion of the general elections in 2019.
He added that, the exercise will also hold from Monday through Friday in every INEC local government ‘s offices or any other suitable location designated by the state office of the commission.
The INEC Commissioner maintained that, the criteria for voter eligibility was for one to first be a Nigerian citizen, and must attain eighteen years old, or transfer of voters and those who have not register during the last exercise.
Nahuche also said that the temporary voters card (TVC) would be issued to registrants at the point of registration before the PVC became ready for collection adding that the distribution officer will deal with cases of lost or omitted PVCs and test PVC using Smart Card Reader (SCR).
He then urged all stakeholders particularly the political parties to encourage their supporters to come out and register and collect their PVCs.