Gov poll: Court orders INEC to allow Temporary Voters Card use

Forum 1 year ago

Gov poll: Court orders INEC to allow Temporary Voters Card use

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to allow electorates with Temporary Voter Cards, TVC, to participate in the Governorship and National Assembly elections billed for March 18.

The court made the order, following a suit that was brought before it 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 Voter’s Card, PVCs, before the February 6 deadline.

The plaintiffs, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, prayed the court to compel INEC which was cited as the sole defendant, to allow registered voters that were unable to collect their PVC before the expiration of the deadline, to vote in the elections.

They maintained that unless the court to intervened, many duly registered electorates that could not obtain their PVCs, would be disenfranchised.

Even though the suit, which was filed before the presidential election held on February 25, was accompanied with an affidavit of urgency, however, the court delivered its judgement on Thursday.

In his judgement, Justice Obiora Egwuatu held that evidence before the court established that the plaintiffs were duly registered with their details captured in INEC’s database.

Consequently, he issued 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”.

As well as, “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”.

According to the court, neither the 1999 Constitution, as amended, not the Electoral Act 2022, emphasized that only PVC could be used for the elections.

It held that the law merely stipulated the use of a voter’s card.

Nevertheless, Justice Egwuatu declined the third prayer the plaintiffs sought, which was for every eligible voter with a TVC to be allowed to vote.

The court stressed that it could not grant the order since the case was not filed in representative capacity.

“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”, Justice Egwuatu held.

Court order goes against Electoral Act – INEC

Reacting to the order, the Commission described the order as contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2033 (as amended), which provides that only voters with Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, should be allowed to vote in the elections.

Meanwhile, reacting to the judgement, counsel for the plaintiffs, Mr Victor Opatola, described it as victory for democracy, especially for Nigerians that were duly registered by INEC, but who could not get their PVCs owing bottlenecks that were not their fault.

He argued that since his clients fulfilled all the legal requirements but were not issued their PVCs until the collection deadline elapsed, they ought not to be allowed to suffer injury in the form of disenfranchisement.

“So what the court is saying is that these two people who have fulfilled all necessary requirements can vote with their TVCs, then by law of equity, it should also apply to all Nigerians who have fulfilled all necessary requirements and were issued TVCs by INEC”, Opatola added.

Specifically, the plaintiffs, had among other things, prayed the court to determine; “Whether by the true construction and interpretation of section 10(2) and 12(1) of Electoral Act 2022 and section 77(2) and 132(5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), an eligible voter upon fulfilling all necessary requirements provided therein, is registered and whose name appears In the electronic format of the defendant’s central database and manual, printed paper based record or hard copy format of the Register of Voters and has assigned a Voter’s Identification Number (VIN), can be said to be entitled to a voter’s card for the purpose of voting In the forthcoming 2023 General Elections.

“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 the defendant only needs the thumbprint and/or facial recognition to accredit a voter, a person whose name appears in the electronic format in the defendant’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 Temporary Voter’s Card, in the forthcomlng General Electlon to be conducted by the defendant”.

As well as, “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), the plaintiffs, bearing in mind that the BVAS Machine (Bimodal Voters Accreditation System) introduced by the defendant only needs the thumbprint and/or facial recognition to accredit a person whose name appears in its central database and manual, printed paper based record or hard copy format and has been assigned a Voter’s Identification Number (VIN); and as a consequence of the defendant’s inabilities, actions and omission, be disenfranchised of the right and entitlement to vote in the forthcoming 2023 General”.

Upon determination of the questions, they urged the court to declare that having fulfilled all necessary legal requirements to register and having been captured in INEC’s central database, they are entitled to vote, using the temporary voter’s card.

They further applied for an order compelling the defendant to allow them to vote with the temporary voter’s card.