By Sunday Nwakanma
Umuahia
Independent National Electoral Commission has concluded plans to embark on distribution of Permanent Voters Cards, PVC and Continuous Voter Registration exercise in the country.
In a press briefing in Umuahia, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Abia state Prof. Jacob Jatau said the events were scheduled to take place in two states in each geo-political zone in the country except in the south west zone states in Ekiti and Osun on May 23 – 25 and May 28 – June 1, 2014, respectively.
Jatau said in Abia, the PVC distribution would take place in all the 2676 polling units in the state while the CVR would be at designated centres in each of the 184 Registration Areas.
The Abia INEC REC explained that the CVR would enable eligible voters who turned 18 years since the last general voter registration exercise in 2011 and those who could not register or whose biometric data were not properly captured then to register and participate in 2015 general elections.
He said the PVC distribution exercise which would precede the CVR and would involve the handover of Temporary Voters Cards, TVC to registered voters and which would be used during the 2015 general elections.
Jatau said INEC staff and members of the NYSC ad hoc staff would be used for the exercise for transparency.
He said sensitisation in that regard would be done through the press, while INEC would be holding meetings with traditional rulers, political stakeholders and security agencies over the exercise.