Days after postponement of elections, Nigeria has no idea about the number of registered voters that will be allowed to vote in the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly Elections on Saturday, February 23.
At the maiden edition of what would be the daily briefing by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the elections, its Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu could not provide the total figure of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected nationwide. The Commission has always insisted that only registered voters with PVCs will be allowed to vote.
Professor Yakubu who had earlier promised to provide the data even before postponement of the February 16 polls confirmed that the Commission was still putting together the figures received from its state offices across the country. He however assured that the exercise will soon be completed and the details published on the website of the Commission before the briefing tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Commission says all sensitive and non-sensitive election materials have now been distributed to all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The exercise was completed at about 4pm on Monday. The 774 local governments are to take delivery of their respective election materials by Thursday while each council wards referred to as Registration Centre Areas is to receive its consignment by Friday for easy movement to the polling units in the early hours of Saturday.
Already, election materials for the March 9 Governorship, House of Assembly and FCT Area Council polls are being moved to the states. Professor Yakubu said all the states would have received their consignments at least nine clear days to the rescheduled polls.
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