INEC Will Challenge The Court’s Decision Allowing Those Without PVCs To Vote

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it would appeal a court decision allowing two Nigerians to cast ballots in the elections for the governorship and state houses of assembly using their Temporary Voter Certificates (TVCs).

Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, two Nigerians, contested INEC’s stance that only a permanent voter card (PVC) may be used in an election by filing a lawsuit with the case number FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023 on Wednesday, February 8.

In his ruling on Thursday, Judge Obiora Egwuatu, the sitting judge of the federal high court in Abuja, said that the petitioners should be permitted to utilize their TVCs in the absence of the PVCs.

According to Judge Egwuatu, the plaintiffs were properly registered and recorded in INEC’s database, which is why the ruling was granted.

According to Egwuatu, “An order is made forcing the defendant (INEC) to let the plaintiffs to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards provided by the defendant, the plaintiffs having been lawfully recorded in the National Register of Voters’ database.

This court declares that the plaintiffs are qualified to cast a ballot in the upcoming general election in 2023 using their temporary voter cards because they have complied with all requirements for registration and have been recorded in the defendant’s (INEC’s) central database and manual, printed paper-based record or hard copy format of the defendant’s maintained Register of Voters.

Egwuata also said that Section 47 of the statute allowed for the use of a voter’s card, and that neither the 1999 Constitution nor the Electoral Act include any language stipulating that only PVCs may be used.