The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has recorded 80.61 per cent collection rate of Permanent Voter Cards.

As of Monday, March 9, at least 55,490,031 voters had received their PVCs, Kayode Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, stated on Tuesday.

INEC registered a total of 68,833,476 voters for the 2015 general elections.

On February 27, Mr. Kayode, in a statement, said 67,205,600 cards had been delivered to the states.

Mr. Kayode did not, however, say whether or not INEC has delivered more cards to the states for collection.

The field-testing of the card readers and the PVCs, INEC said, were 100 per cent successful.

Although the exercise revealed challenges in biometric authentication, the electoral body said voters whose cards were verified but did not get their fingerprints verified will be issued an Incident Form to fill and be allowed to vote.

INEC also recently announced an extension for the deadline for collection of PVCs to March 22.