Nigerian businessman Dr. Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh is asking a federal high court in Abuja to affirm that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deserves to allow duly registered voters without a permanent voter card (PVC) to vote in the upcoming elections as long as their fingerprint and facial biometrics can be identified, verified and authenticated.
INEC rules require each and every voter to deliver their PVC to the polling station before voting.
In a subpoena dated August 26 and published through Idoma Voice, the plaintiff requests that “no eligible Nigerian voter of voting age would be denied the right to vote for failing to provide their voter card to the voting unit where and when the call of such eligible voter appears in the respondent’s official voter register for that voting unit, and that voter could be authenticated, verified, or known through a biometric identity (fingerprints or facial popularity) or any other generation implemented by the respondent during the uninterrupted era of voter registration exercise.
The complainant also insists that the voter’s signature carried through INEC at polling stations throughout the country “is the valid, original and legal document that gives rise to the valid electorate and the voter credential, card reader, biometric identity, fingerprints or facial popularity used to sign the electorate. “it can be used to identify, accredit and determine eligible registered voters whose names appear on the voter register.
The summons of Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh also demands situations of article 47(3) of the 2022 electoral law, arguing that it is unconstitutional and gives INEC too much force that can only infringe on the right to vote of citizens.
Article 47(3) of the Electoral Law of 2022 states the following: “When a smart card reader or other technological device implemented for voter accreditation does not work in a unit and a new card reader or technological device is not implemented, the election in that unit will be canceled and a new election will be scheduled within 24 hours if the Commission is satisfied that the result of the Election in that unit will be substantially the final result of the entire election and the declaration of a winner in the electoral district in question.
PVC readers and INEC’s new Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) painted in past elections, generating criticism.
This demand is one of many demanding situations facing INEC as it prepares for elections in Nigeria to be held early next year.
This follows a recent call through an organization of civil society organizations to the electoral arbitrator to extend the era of biometric voter registration so that more than seven million citizens, who had not completed the voter registration process until July 31, can have the opportunity to do so. So.
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