The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified reason behind its decision to distribute permanent voter cards (PVCs) hours before the Anambra governorship election.
INEC, had On October 26 announced that 81,778 new PVCs would be delivered to the state on October 28 for distribution ahead of the November 6 election.
This has elicited criticism from some quarters.
Speaking on the matter, INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye said: “I think it is important to situate this election within the context of what is going on,”
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“We all know in this country that this is not a normal election. This is a very unusual election being conducted at a very difficult period.
“I think that the whole country recognises this fact. The people of Anambra recognise this particular fact and this is why you have an unusual number of security personnel deployed for this particular election.
“If this election was a normal election, some of these issues won’t even arise. When we started the continuous voter registration exercise, we could not deploy to the registration areas the way we normally deploy on account of security challenges.
“When we are talking about the challenges of distribution and so on, we must also realise the context and complex nature we are dealing with. You also realise that there is a shortened working period in Anambra on the account of insecurity challenges.
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“The important thing is that we took these PVCs to the various local governments. All the people that turned up to collect their PVCs collected. All the uncollected PVCs have already been quarantined and nobody can use those PVCs in any election. They can’t be compromised and nobody can use any PVC that does not belong to him or her during this election.”
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