The Independent National Electoral Commission has asked political parties that would partake in the congress and governorship primary in Adamawa State to encourage the electorate to come out en-masse and collect their voters cards in accordance with the laid down procedures.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Kassim Gaildam, a lawyer, made the appeal on Thursday in Yola on the occasion of the distribution of soft copies of Adamawa State voters register to political parties fielding candidates for the governorship bye-election slated for October 11, 2014.
Gaidam said that the aim of the soft copy exercise is to ensure another credible, transparent, free and fair governorship election, since the register has been cleaned up and tidied through the removal of multiple registrants, under-aged voters as well as invalid registrations. According to him, these are people whose finger prints were not captured and those whose pictures were not cleared.
He said the register of voters for Adamawa State in 2014 stands at 1,529,636. He explained that at the completion of the 2011 voter registration exercise, the commission gave tentative total registered voters as 1,816,094 but at the end of the 2011 data capturing process, the exercise underwent stages of clean up optimisation process.
Meanwhile, there are six units in Yola North, Mubi and Numan local government areas that have less than 50 voters. Gaidam said the state office had liased with INEC headquarters on the need to address the short-falls to enable those who have not registered and those with challenges to register and obtain their PVC that could be used for the general elections of 2015.
While urging political parties to use the register positively in such a way that it will add value in the way and manner campaigns are conducted throughout the state, the REC said from the register "one of the most important inference politicians can give consideration is that of the youth group, who constitutes over 43 per cent of the voters register in Adamawa State."
To the electorates, Gaidam urged them to use the advantage of the two days extension of the distribution of the PVC that will now be concluded on Saturday September 13, 2014 to avail themselves with the laid down procedures, as it is understood that voting cannot be possible in Adamawa North Senatorial District due to the security challenges. Also, he said collection of PVC by proxy is not allowed.
PUNCH.
