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By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa.
The independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says a total of 26o,397 voter were registered in Bayelsa during the recent continuous voter registration exercise.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Dr. Cyril Omorogbe stated this in Yenagoa, the state capital, Thursday, during a stakeholders meeting on PVC distribution organized by the commission.
Omorogbe said with this additional figure captured as voters commission has recorded 60% increase in the number of persons so far registered across the state.
According to the REC, prior to the commencement of the CVR the state had 663,639 voters, emphasizing that with the number captured in the 2017 and 2018 continuous voter registration exercise, the cumulative figure of qualified electorates in the state has now risen to 1,036,442.
While commending Bayelsans and stakeholders alike for cooperating with the electoral umpire, the Resident Electoral Commissioner maintained that the bane of low electoral results in the state is the lack of the will by persons registered to collect their Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, according to Omorogbe, would create awareness on the importance of collecting PVCs by registered voters, stressing that 23,095 persons who registered before the 2015 general election have still not collected their PVCs.
INEC, the REC said would decentralized the process of distribution of PVCs, saying the distribution of PVCs for the 2017 and 2018 CVR exercise would not only be done in the local government Inec offices, but at all ward headquarters for convenience and prompt collection. He warned that INEC would not give the PVCs on proxy as the distribution when started would last till the first week of February, 2019.
