YENAGOA – Bayelsa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Barikor Kpagih, has decried the unwillingness of residents of Yenagoa metropolis to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
Kpagih made this known in Yenagoa on Thursday during an enlightenment forum organized by the state Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security.
The commissioner noted that other seven local governments in Bayelsa had attained 95 per cent in collection of the PVCs, except Yenagoa with 51.3 per cent.
He said that a total of 54,000 PVCs belonging to registered voters in Yenagoa local government area were still lying with INEC even as the distribution of the PVCs had been decentralized.
Kpagih said, ”This situation exists notwithstanding that Yenagoa has 15 wards and we have centers for distribution in all of them.
“However, we are even increasing the distribution points in Yenagoa alone in order to bring the distribution exercise even closer to the people.”
He appealed to those who registered in 2011 to come forward to collect their PVCs, assuring them that those who registered during the continuous voters registration exercise last year would receive their PVCs next week.
Kpagih, who announced that guidelines for the conduct of the elections had been released, said voting procedure comprised three main segments.
He said, ”The first has to do with accreditation of voters which commences at 8.am to end at 1pm. Accreditation will be carried out first by the use of the card readers.
“This will be followed by checking the voters register and inking of the cuticle of the specified finger on the left hand.”
He said the second and third segments comprise voting, which would commence at 1.30pm, and then counting and documentation would follow sequentially.
The REC said that there are 1804 polling units and 1920 voting units in the state.
He further said that polling units which used to be located on private premises had been relocated to public buildings or open spaces to further enhance the integrity of the voting processes.
In his remarks, Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Valentine Ntomchukwu, assured voters that all the security agencies would work together to provide adequate security before, during and after the election. (Punch)