Date: 2018-05-15

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has registered 70,000 people in Kwara since the commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in April 2017.

Mr Paul Atser, INEC Administrative Secretary in the state, made this known during a meeting with members of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Ilorin on Monday.

He said that the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) of the 70,000 registered prospective voters would soon be sent to the state for distribution.

He added that of the 242,000 unclaimed PVCs in the state, 4,000 had been collected by their owners.

Atser assured IPAC members that the newly printed PVCs would soon be ready for collection, adding that stakeholders would be adequately informed on this.

According to him, card owners will have to personally visit INEC collection centres as there will be no collection by proxy.

The administrative secretary expressed satisfaction over at the ongoing registration and urged members of the IPAC to mobilize those yet to register to do so.

He commended the peaceful and serene political environment existing among the political parties in the state.

Atser noted that the political parties had been conducting their activities in peaceful manner devoid of any major rancour and appealed to them to sustain the situation.

He said that the meeting was called to update political parties with developments since the last meeting.

He urged IPAC members to feel free to visit the commission's office to obtain clarifications on any issue.

Earlier, IPAC Chairman in the state, Comrade Abdul-Mumeen Onagun, who is also the Labour Party (LP) Chairman, commended the openness of the state office of INEC in handling all issues relating to political parties and creating a level playground all the time.

Onagun noted that in spite of INEC's efforts, the number of the registration centers were still "grossly inadequate" and very far from the registrants.

He, therefore, urged INEC to create more centres, to ensure that no one was disenfranchised due to inability to register. (NAN)