Courts order INEC to permit the use of Temporary voters card for Governorship election
Temporary voters card is set to be in use for the 2023 governorship election as The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered INEC to permit the use of the Temporary voter’s card for the election which has been slated for March 18.
The court rule is coming after two aggrieved Nigerians filed a suit seeking the use of the Temporary Voter Card in the general elections in the absence of the Permanent Voter Cards.
The plaintiffs identified as Kofoworola Olusegun and Wilson Allwell, in the suit filed on February 8 and marked FHC/ABJ/CS/180/2023, challenged the position of INEC and asked the court to determine:
“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 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.”
Court ruling on the use of Temporary voters card
Furthermore, the court ruling held that there was no portion of the law, both the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act that states that it is only PVCs that could be used, but that the law under Section 47 provided for a voter’s card.
In addition, Justice Egwuatu stated that the order was made because the plaintiffs were duly registered and captured in INEC’s database.
Though the court maintained that the suit was not brought in a representative capacity, and the Judge stated that he was unable to grant any relief under the plaintiff’s application.
Speaking, counsel for the plaintiffs, Victor Opatola said that the judgment was a win for all Nigerians who suffered to get registered to vote and were duly registered but due to no fault of theirs could not get their PVCs before the election.
He said, “since my clients had fulfilled all requirements by law but were not issued their PVCs until the time for collection of PVCs was over, they should not be allowed to suffer”.
With this, the court ruled that people who have fulfilled all requirements can vote with their Temporary voter’s card, by the law of equity, all Nigerians who have fulfilled all requirements and were issued Temporary voter’s cards should be allowed to vote.
Furthermore, he asserted that the content of the TVC was the same as the content of the PVC and the only difference was the plastic used for the PVC.
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