AfriqueCAN
STARTING October 9, 2026, voters across Nigeria will begin to collect the newly issued Permanent Voter Cards – PVCs, ahead of the 2027 general elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC, has said.
INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, who made this known during the commission’s North-West Zonal Interactive Meeting with staff in Kaduna,
said the newly issued PVCs followed three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise, which recorded more than 10.7 million new registrations.
According to Amupitan, the registrations are subject to verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS.
The INEC boss directed electoral officials to address operational challenges that could hinder PVC collection, particularly in rural communities.
He also urged officials to remain neutral and professional, stressing that their conduct at local government areas, registration area centres and polling units would be critical to public confidence in the electoral process.
The INEC chairman said a total of 10,772,421 new voters were registered across the three phases of the CVR exercise.
The first phase, conducted from August 25 to December 10, 2025, recorded 2,611,266 registrations.
The second phase, held from January 5 to April 17, 2026, recorded 4,121,835 registrations.
The third phase, which ran from May 11 to July 26, 2026, recorded 3,867,997 registrations.
Amupitan said the combined figure remains subject to ABIS verification, which is currently being concluded.
