The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced plans to phase out the Permanent Voter Cards, PVC.

INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, made this known at a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs, held at the INEC Conference Room, Abuja on Thursday.

This was part of the identified 142 recommendations released by the Commission which deals with the general state of preparedness, voter management, voter education and public communication, political parties and candidate management.

Other areas of recommendation include electoral operations and logistics management, election officials and personnel, partnership and collaboration, monitoring and supervision, election technology, voting and result management, election security, electoral offences and the electoral legal framework.

The Chairman said there are eight recommendations among the 142 which require legislative action by the National Assembly.

“The Commission also believes that with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, the use of the Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVC, as the sole means of identification for voter accreditation on Election Day should be reviewed.

He, however, said that those who already have the Permanent Voter Cards can still use them to vote.

He added, “But going forward, computer-generated slips issued to the voter or even downloaded from the Commission’s website will suffice for voter accreditation. ”

Yakubu said this new development will save costs and further eliminate the issues around the collection of Permanent Voter Cards.

He also said the practice of buying up the Permanent Voter Cards from voters to disenfranchise them, would be reduced.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on the National Assembly to urgently revisit the current electoral laws and processes to enhance their efficiency, transparency, and credibility, aligning them with global best practices.

In a statement on Monday, Atiku cited the recent elections in Ghana as a model for necessary amendments that would eliminate ambiguities in the electoral process.

Atiku emphasised that the National Assembly should revise the laws to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deliver elections that are transparent, quick, and credible.

He noted that the swift declaration of results in Ghana, where contestants received results by Sunday morning after a Saturday election, underscores the importance of incorporating efficient technology into the electoral process.

The statement read in part: “The recently concluded presidential election in Ghana, our next-door neighbour, presents a wake-up call to INEC and the National Assembly on the need to review our electoral process and make it more efficient, transparent, credible and in line with best practices across the world. There is a need for INEC to embrace technology and make it help the process.”

The PDP chieftain argued that any practices that allow manual conduct of elections or hinder real-time result upload on the IREV system must be eradicated, proposing that elections failing to meet these technological standards should be declared null and void.

“Any excuse that still allows some officials to conduct elections manually or gives the impression that results cannot be uploaded in real-time on the IREV should be eliminated. Any election that does not meet the technology threshold should be nullified,” he said.

Atiku stressed the need to discourage any attempts to sabotage technology to manipulate results.

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and a former spokesman, Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign, Segun Sowunmi, has said that the former vice president is yet to respond to his question on whether he (Atiku) is contesting for the presidency again.

Although the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has not declared his intention to join the 2027 presidential race, his body language looks like one who’s warming up to try for the third consecutive time.

However, Sowunmi told Channels Television that the 2023 presidential candidate is still in a reflective mood.

Atiku Abubakar is one man I love with my bones. The heart will declay quickly but the bone is the last thing that will declay.

“I have asked him twice, ‘are you running? Are you done? If you are running, what do we do with this structure? If you’re not done we have to do something different’.

“We can’t be doing the same thing and expect a different result on two different occasions with gaps.

“I’m a good man to have even asked him the third time. He was quiet, he was still in a reflective mood. He’s not said ‘no’, he’s not said ‘yes’ and I respect that.

“Any sensible person should know that the burden of election is heavy. No human being that has had the kind of experience, challenges and even the kind of betrayal Atiku has endured should not reflect deeply before saying ‘I’m going to run’.

“I don’t do guess work. I’ve asked him twice, he didn’t answer. When he answers, whatever answer he gives, we’ll take it to the next level.”