The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said in Abuja on Tuesday that it registered 68,833,476 voters for the general elections in Feb. 2015

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, announced this at a news conference and presentation of voter registers to leadership of political parties.

Jega said the commission arrived at the figure after removing over four million voters that engaged in duplicate registration from the 73.5 million registrants nationwide.

He said that the removal was done through the commission’s AFIX and Business Rules for the printing of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

AFIX is software that allows the commission to indentify and exclude any double registration from it data base.

He said the figure would be made available to the public on the commission’s website in the next couple of days.
Jega added that the commission was ready to provide evidence to any political parties in doubt about the figure and the process used in the computation of the register.

He also said 14 candidates were duly nominated by political parties for presidential election holding on Feb. 14.

“For senatorial elections, there are 739 candidates; and for the House of Representatives elections, there are 1,780 candidates.’’

The chairman also disclosed that the commission had received all funds required to conduct the general elections from government.

He said the commission had taken delivery of additional PVCs from the contractor, “and we are positive that the commission will have outstanding cards with us latest Jan. 28.’’

Jega said INEC would use card readers for the 2015 elections as it had commenced the deployment of the received readers to states.

“The commission has received more than 132,000 units of these card readers.’’
He added that INEC was preparing to hold elections in all states of the federation including the three North East states experiencing insurgency.

He said the commission was yet to receive any formal notification from the House of Representatives directing it to allow people with Temporary Voter Cards for the 2015 general elections.

“We will do everything possible to ensure that PVC is used for the elections because of the technology involved as PVC will help to eliminate fraudulent voting.’’
The Chairman, however, advised Nigerians against wrong handling of PVC to avoid any damage to the data on the chip.

Jega said that the commission would be responsible for the cost of production of the first PVC, but in the case of loss or damage, the owner of the card would incur the cost of replacement.

He said that although the card was durable, it could be damaged if wrongly handled or exposed to unnecessary heat.

He explained that the card had 10 years life span and that the commission hoped to continue using it until the country was able to produce a national identification card that could replace the PVC.