Registered voters in Ondo now two million, 313,200 PVCs uncollected – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed the total number of registered voters in Ondo State as 2,047,598.

The figure was realised after the suspension of continuous voter registration in the state.

As of 2020 when the state held its governorship election, the figure was 1,822,346.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Rufus Akeju, gave the hint on the new figures on Friday in his Akure office.

He said 1,531,974 Permanent Voters’ Cards have been distributed out of 1,843,516 received as of October 31 this year, saying that 313,200 are yet to be collected.

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He said there are 3,933 polling units with 203 registration areas and 18 collation centres for the forthcoming elections.

Mr Akeju said sensitive and non-sensitive election materials so far collected by the commission in the state include 3933 Bimodal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS), 5329 ballot boxes, 23,598 sleeping mats, 4130 gums and 2224 voting cubicles.

He also said the commission is working to ensure its activities ahead of the general elections were carried out as scheduled.

He also stated that the commission would have BVAS evaluation training, meeting with election stakeholders, determination of security architectures for the state through meetings with the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) and identification of flashpoints and difficult terrains.

According to Mr Akeju, evaluation of political parties’ billboards, stands, platforms and rallies are ongoing to track political parties’ finances.

“The distribution of the PVC is ongoing in order to allow all registrants from 2011 till date to collect their PVCs before the 2023 general election,” he said.

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“A public portal has been opened for interested and qualified members of the public to apply for Ad-hoc positions.

“Result Viewing Portal had been very effective in giving accessibility to Nigerians and indeed the whole world to view the result of the election at the comfort of their home online.

“Ad-hoc recruitment portal is another innovation with which the Commission had been recruiting Ad-hoc personnel online.

“Collation Support Result Verification System is another innovation of the Commission.”

The governorship election will not be held in the state until 2024, but only in the national assembly and state houses of Assembly elections.

However, the presidential election campaigns of the various parties are setting the tone of political activities ahead of the general elections.