Election: Two Nigerians Get Court Approval To Vote Without PVC

The Federal High Court, Abuja has granted Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson A. the leverage to vote in the 2023 governorship and state assembly elections with their Temporary Voters Cards.

The suit was filed amid a policy of the Independent National Electoral Commission which stipulates that only Nigerians with Permanent Voters Cards could vote at the polls.

But the plaintiffs approached the court seeking determination of the following questions:

“Whether by the true construction and interpretation of section 10(2), 12(1) and 47 of the Electoral Act 2022; Section 77(2) and 132(5) of the 1999 constitution (as amended), and bearing in mind that the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine introduced by INEC only needs the thumbprint and/or facial recognition to accredit a voter;

” 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 (VIN), 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.

“Whether such a person can, as a consequence of the defendant’s inabilities, actions and omission be disenfranchised of the right and entitlement to vote in the 2023 general election.”

In his judgement on Thursday, Justice Obiora Egwuatu held that since their data was captured on INEC’s database, they can vote with their TVC.

“An order is made 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.

“A declaration is made by this court 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 judge declared.

Meanwhile, the judge emphasized that the judgement applies only to the plaintiffs because their lawyer filed the application on their behalf only.