By The Independent National Electoral Commission says 1,906,390 Permanent Voter Cards have been collected by registered voters in Osun State, just two days before Saturday’s governorship election.
The figure represents 81.50 per cent of the 2,339,233 registered voters in the state, INEC said in a statement issued Thursday and signed by the National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna.
The commission said the remaining 426,842 uncollected PVCs, representing 18.50 per cent of registered voters, have been deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria in line with its standard practice.
INEC also disclosed that 6,101 voters who applied for replacement of damaged, defaced or lost cards were able to print downloadable copies of their PVCs, and said a full polling-unit-by-polling-unit breakdown of collection figures has been published on its website.
The commission reassured political parties, civil society groups, the media and residents of Osun State of its readiness to deliver what it described as a free, fair, credible and transparent election on Saturday.
The disclosure comes as INEC also moved this week to add the Social Democratic Party to the governorship ballot and began distributing sensitive election materials across the state, part of a broader final push toward Saturday’s poll, which pits incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party against Bola Oyebamiji of the APC and Najeem Salaam of the ADC, among other contenders.
With less than 20 per cent of PVCs still uncollected and voting day fast approaching, attention is expected to turn to how many of those outstanding cards can still be claimed before Saturday, and to whether the commission’s assurances of readiness hold up amid the tense campaign atmosphere that has gripped the state in recent days.
