Governorship election: Allow use of temporary voter cards, court orders INEC
Written by Olarotimi Oshin on March 10, 2023
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to allow the use of Temporary Voter Cards in the forthcoming governorship and state houses of assembly elections which has been slated for March 18.
Two aggrieved Nigerians had filed a suit seeking the use of the Temporary Voter Card in the general elections in the absence of the Permanent Voter Cards.
The plaintiffs, Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, in the suit filed on February 8 challenged the position of INEC and asked the court to determine “whether a person whose name appears in the electronic format in INEC’s central database and manual, printed paper based record or hard copy format of the register of voters and has been assigned a Voter’s Identification Number can be said to be entitled to be accredited to vote with his/her TVC in the general election to be conducted by the defendant.”
Punch reports that The plaintiffs further requested the court to determine whether such a person can, as a consequence of INEC’s liabilities… omission be disenfranchised of the right and entitlement to vote in the 2023 general election.
Ruling, the court held that there was no portion of the law, both the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act that states that it is only PVCs that could be used, but that the law under Section 47 provided for a voter’s card.
