Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi Guber: PVCs collected ‘ll be used to compute margin of lead, says INEC

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

Ahead of the November 11 governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned that any vote from a polling unit in excess of the number of PVCs collected amounts to over voting.
The Commission specifically made it clear that the number of PVCs collected shall be used for the computation of the margin of lead principle.
These were declarations were contained in a statement yesterday by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Sam Olumekun after a crucial meeting of the commission.
The statement by Olumekun indicated that the breakdown for the three States (Bayelsa , Imo and Kogi). indicates that out of 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State, 1,017,613 have collected their PVCs and 39, 249 are uncollected. “In Imo State, the number of registered voters is 2,419,922 out of which 2,318,919 have collected their PVCs and 101,003 are uncollected, while in Kogi State, out of 1,932,654 registered voters, 1,833,160 have collected their PVCs and leaving 99,494 uncollected”, the statement said.
Continuing, the statement said, “Any vote from a polling unit in excess of the number of PVCs collected amounts to over voting.
“The number of PVCs collected shall be used for the computation of the margin of lead principle.
“The detailed information has been uploaded to the Commission’s website www.inecnigeria.org”, it said The Prof Mahmood Yakubu led-INEC this appealed to all stakeholders to note the information.
The statement by Olumekun reads further, “The Commission met today, (yesterday) Monday 30th October 2023, specifically to review the ongoing preparations for the off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled for Saturday, 11th November 2023.
“As was done in recent elections, including the 2023 General Election, the Commission is publishing the comprehensive information of collected and uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) in the three States on polling unit basis.
“The information also gives the distribution of the polling units by Local Government Areas, Registration Areas/Wards, the names of the polling units, their code numbers, number of registered voters and the number of collected as well as uncollected PVCs.
“Equally significantly, the list provides the names and locations of the two polling units in Bayelsa State and 38 in Imo State without registered voters”, it said.