Nigeria’s Independent Election Commission (INEC) concluded the distribution of voter cards ahead of the March 28 general elections with a total of 56,431,255 Nigerians, representing 82 percent of the registered voters, successfully in possession of the PVCs.
The remaining 18 percent who have not collected their cards would not be eligible to cast their ballots on March 28 when Nigerians elect a new president and parliamentarians.
Although 14 candidates will vie for presidency, the poll is largely seen as a race between President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler running on the ticket of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) .
The APC is an amalgam of political interests that have come together in a bid to wrest power from the PDP, which has ruled the country since its return to democracy in 1999.
The INEC had extended voter card distribution twice to enable as many voters as possible to collect the cards. It is not immediately clear if the electoral body would grant further extension for card distribution.
“I do not have any information on extension,” INEC spokesman Kayode Idowu said. [myad]
