A majority of the political parties eligible to field candidates for the February presidential and National Assembly elections are yet to meet up with a certain provision of the law ahead of the elections.

Checks revealed that by virtue of Section 43 of the Electoral Act 2022, political parties are mandated to submit lists of polling agents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Friday, December 30, 2022, was the deadline, according to INEC’s timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections. Parties are to submit lists of polling agents to the electoral officers of the 774 local government areas through dedicated INEC portals.

When contacted, INEC National Commissioner for Voters Education and Publicity, Mr Festus Okoye, could not confirm the number of political parties that have met up or observed the provision of the Electoral Act.

Okoye told news reporter to exercise patience and wait for the expiration of the deadline at midnight on Friday.

“December 30 is still live. We must wait for it to lapse and thereafter we will download what has been submitted by the parties,” he said.

Prodded to confirm further if the major political parties among the 18 eligible parties were equally culpable, Okoye said he could not make an affirmative pronouncement.

Director General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Chief Akin Osuntokun, how-ever, told Saturday Tribune on Friday night that the deadline had been extended.

“I think the deadline has been extended but we are up to speed, Osuntokun told Saturday Tribune in a text message.

Speaking on the update of Permanent Voters Cards awaiting collection by prospective voters, the INEC commissioner was silent on the estimate. He noted that the commission could only arrive at the statistics after the window available to Nigerians to pick up their cards has been exhausted.

He said: “The collection of these cards is ongoing and will be devolved to the electoral wards from the 6th of January, 2023 to the 15th of January, 2023. Resident Electoral Commissioners have been directed to make daily returns of the rate of collection from all the local government offices in their states.

“Prior to this period, the commission made available for collection the cards of those that registered before the 2019 general election for collection. The commission went into the 2019 general election with a total registered voter population of 84,004,084. Because of the number of uncollected PVCs in all the states of the federation, the commission directed all the Resident Electoral commissioners in all the states of the federation to take an inventory of all uncollected PVCs. The commission will send messages to those that are yet to collect their PVCs.

“The commission made the Permanent Voters Cards available for collection based on electoral wards, local governments and states.

“The commission is irrevocably committed to making the Permanent Voters Cards available to eligible Nigerians. We urge all those that registered before the 2019 general election and who are yet to collect their cards to approach our local government offices where they intend to vote and collect their cards.

“The same applies to all those that registered during the off-cycle elections and during the

CVR. We advise all those that have collected their cards to keep them in safe custody pending the 2023 general election. The PVC is not an alternative identity card and should be preserved and reserved for elections and elections only.” (Saturday Tribune)

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