68 million voters registered for 2015 elections - INEC

A total number of 68,833,476 voters registered for
the February general elections.
Also, over four million Nigerians were involved in
multiple registrations across the country and their
names have been successfully by the Independent
National Electoral Commission.
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, stated this at
the meeting the commission had with the national
leadership of all the 23 registered political parties
in Abuja on Tuesday evening.
Jega said, “In line with the provisions of the law,
the commission has just announced the
publications of the register of voters that will be
used for the February 2015 general elections.
“The total number of voters registered for the
elections is 68,833,476.”
Jega said over four million Nigerians were involved
in double registration and that because of this, their
names had been deleted from the register.
He said 38,774,391 Nigerians had collected their
Permanent Voter Cards out of the 54,341,610 that
were ready as of Monday last week.
He, however, said the commission had ordered
more PVCs and that some of them were already
waiting for collection.
Jega said, “The commission has taken delivery of
additional PVCs from the contractor, and we are
positive that we will have all outstanding cards
with us by 28 January, 2015 .
“For the avoidance of doubt, possession of PVCs is
a strict condition for anyone intending to vote in
the 2015 elections.”
Asked about the resolutions passed by the House
of Representatives, asking the commission to use
TVCs, he said he was not aware of such
resolution.
He nevertheless said the commission was working
with the intent of using only PVCs for the elections.
Jega regretted that many Nigerians refused to
collect their PVCs, adding that in order to address
this, the commission had directed all resident
electoral commissioners to further decentralise the
distribution of the cards to the ward level.
The time for the distribution, he added, had also
been fixed from 8.30am to 5.30pm, from Monday
to Saturday.
He said contrary to the doubt being entertained in
some quarters, the electoral umpire would use
card readers for the elections.
Jega added, “INEC will use card readers for the
elections. Th commission has taken delivery of
more than 130,000 units of these card readers, and
we are on schedule to receive the remaining
quantity before the end of January.”
He announced that deployment of the cards to
states had commended.
He said there were about 150,000 polling points in
the country.