The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to allow electorates with Temporary Voter Cards (TVCs) to participate in the March 18 governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
A Federal High Court sitting, in Abuja, on Thursday, made the order following a suit that was brought filef by two aggrieved registered voters, Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, who lamented that despite their effort and repeated visits to INEC office, they were unable to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) before the February 6 deadline.
In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, the plaintiffs prayed the court to compel INEC to allow registered voters that were unable to collect their PVCs before the expiration of the deadline, to cast their ballots in the elections.
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They argued that many duly registered voters, could not obtain their PVCs, would be disenfranchised without the Court’s intervention.
Delivering judgement in the suit, Justice Obiora Egwuatu held that evidence before the court established that the plaintiffs were duly registered with their details captured in INEC’s database.
Therefore, the judge gave an order, “compelling the defendant (INEC) to allow the plaintiffs to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards issued by the defendant, the plaintiffs having been duly captured in the National Register of Voter’s database.”
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He also gave, “a declaration that the Plaintiffs, having fulfilled all necessary legal requirements to register and having consequently been captured 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, the Plaintiffs are entitled to vote using their Temporary Voter Cards in the forthcoming 2023 general election.”
The court further held that neither the 1999 Constitution, as amended, nor the Electoral Act 2022, emphasised that only PVC could be used for the elections, adding that the law merely stipulated the use of a voter’s card.
However, Justice Egwuatu rejected the Plaintiffs’ third prayer that every eligible voter with a TVC should be allowed to vote because the case was not filed in representative capacity.
According to him: “This suit, having not been brought in a representative capacity, I find myself unable to grant any relief pursuant to prayer three of the plaintiffs application.”