The Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi on Thursday, November 28, has said voters without the permanent voter’s cards can vote in the coming local government elections if they have other valid means of identification.
Such other means of identification include a driver’s license or the national identity card, he said.
The commissioner of Information, Muyiwa Olumilua, said that those who had registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but had lost their voter’s cards to vote in the December 7 local government elections in the state.
Muyiwa Olumilua said this on Thursday in Ado Ekiti that residents without voter’s cards would be allowed to vote if they present the alternative means of identification.
Mr Olumilua is the head of a special committee set up by the government to mobilise the people for the polls.
He said those affected would be people who had earlier registered as voters with INEC, “but lost their Voter Cards, due to one circumstance or the other.
“For this category of people to be allowed to vote, their names must first appear on INEC register to be displayed at every polling centre,” he added.
“Their being permitted to vote would also be at the discretion of electoral officers manning the polling unit.”
However, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the idea, saying it contravenes the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
The PDP, through its State Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, said any strange guideline or law made by the state government, through the State Independent Electoral Commission, (EKSIEC), that runs contrary to the Constitution and the Electoral Act would be “vehemently resisted by the party.”
The party, in its statement on Wednesday said the government and its agents at the EKSIEC had resorted to “obnoxious steps, upon realising that the election would not be a usual game, as they had thought at the beginning.”
The party also maintained that allowing people to vote without the approved PVC was not in consonance with the regular laws in the country, advising government to rescind its decision before it was too late, so as not to throw the state into turmoil.
It is, however, not clear if the government and the ruling party are mindful of the legal implications raised by the PDP.
The idea by the government is only being considered since card readers will not be used in the elections.
