The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reaffirmed that Nigerians will not be allowed to vote without presenting their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in the upcoming 2027 general elections, in line with existing electoral laws.
This comes amidst ongoing conversations following INEC’s post-2023 general election review meetings, where stakeholders had suggested that advancements in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) could allow voters to use alternative means of identification during elections.
However, INEC’s position remains unchanged.
Speaking to DAILY GAZETTE on Saturday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, clarified that while discussions had taken place, the Electoral Act mandates the use of PVCs and this cannot be bypassed without legal amendments.
“INEC is not mulling the idea of voting without the Permanent voter cards,” Oyekanmi stated.
“The idea emanated as a recommendation from our post-2023 review meetings with stakeholders, where it was suggested that with the advent of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, which contains details of registered voters per polling unit, Nigerians should be able to vote with any ID including the PVC on Election Day.”
While BVAS has revolutionized the voting process by verifying voter identity through both facial and fingerprint recognition, Oyekanmi emphasized that its deployment doesn’t override the requirements set by law.
“The commission is not opposed to this idea but some aspects of the law, like Section 47 of the Electoral Act 2022, which makes it mandatory for a voter to present a voter card at the polling unit, would need an amendment.”
Despite technological improvements, a major concern for INEC remains the large number of uncollected PVCs.
As of August 24, 2025, a total of 5,965,451 voter cards were yet to be picked up by their owners.
According to data from INEC, Lagos State leads with a staggering 845,225 unclaimed PVCs, followed by Oyo (515,254), Ogun (410,281), Osun (360,794), and Ondo (295,856).
Other significant figures include:
- Rivers – 251,418
- Delta – 232,183
- Kano – 327,177
- Kaduna – 170,735
- Benue – 170,586
- Abia – 171,626
- Akwa Ibom – 158,795
- Kwara – 158,653
Smaller numbers were recorded in states like Ekiti (29,595), Anambra (31,690), Bauchi (37,169), and Gombe (40,840).
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had 93,868 uncollected PVCs, while Taraba and Zamfara reported 197,049 and 76,815, respectively.
In a bid to tackle voter apathy and reduce the backlog of uncollected PVCs, INEC resumed the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise last month.
The online phase commenced on August 18 while physical registration began on August 25.
