Nigeria may extend distribution of voter card beyong the February 8 if the electoral commission fails to distribute significant number of the cards by the closing day.
Amina Zachary, a commissioner for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Amina Zachary gave the indication in an interview Reuters.
“Let’s see how the PVC (permanent voter card) distribution goes by Feb. 8, then maybe,” she said.
She however said no decision had been taken yet.
10 days to the presidential election, only 44 million out of 68.8 million permanent voter cards have been collected by voters and this has compelled the electoral body to shift the closing date of the collection to February 8.
Zachary said one of the major challenge the Commission is facing is that of low distribution of the cards – about 11 states out of the 36 states distributed less than 60 percent of the cards.
“We’ve sometimes just had one person at some distribution stations. Now we put two but the cost is very high, it has eaten up all the money as we have to pay INEC staff extra for staying late,” Zachary said.
