The independent national electoral commission (INEC) on Tuesday presented the voters register to political parties participating in the November 16, 2024 governorship election in Ondo state.
INEC resident electoral commission, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, alongside Prof. Kunle Ajayi, a national commissioner at INEC supervised the presentation to the parties at the commission’s headquarters in Akure, the Ondo state capital.
Precision Online Newspaper reports that 17 political parties will contest the election.
In his remarks, Prof. Ajayi cautioned that collecting Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by proxy will not be allowed during the commencement of distribution on October 17, 2024.
Ajayi emphasised that collecting PVCs for others is against the law, and offenders will face consequences.
He encouraged political parties to mobilize their supporters to collect their PVCs, while appealing to civil society organisations and the media to promote PVC collection among the public.
Ajayi assured that INEC has made provisions for assistive devices to ensure seamless voting for People With Disabilities (PWDs).
Also, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mrs. Oluwatoyin Babalola, highlighted the importance of the voter register in ensuring electoral credibility.
Mrs Babalola had earlier on Monday during a press briefing noted that further collection of the PVCs would commence this week.
“I am pleased to announce that the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in Ondo State will commence from 17th October, 2024. This exercise will begin at the Registration Area (RA) level until October 21st , 2024, including the weekend. PVC distribution will take place across all 203 RAs in the state, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily after which it will continue at the Local Government Area (LGA) level from 23rd to 29th October, 2024.
“PVCs will be distributed at designated collection centers across all 203 Registration Areas within the state’s 18 LGAs. I urge registered voters, especially those who recently updated their details or are newly registered, to take advantage of this opportunity to collect their PVCs. I also encourage those who had previously registered but are yet to collect their cards to use this window to do so,” Babalola said.
The voters register presented by INEC showed that 2,053,061 voters would participate in the election across 18 local government areas in 203 registration areas and 3,933 poling units.
A further breakdown of the register show that the top LGAs with the highest number of voters are:
Akure south LGA 314,710;
Ondo West LGA 190,666;
Odigbo LGA 154,382;
Ilaje LGA 147,208
Owo LGA 143,751
Okitipupa LGA 126,021
Akoko Southwest LGA 112,027
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