Jane Salihu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced the ward-level distribution of 128,396 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ahead of the 2026 Area Council Election scheduled for Saturday, 21st February 2026.
The development was disclosed on Tuesday, 20th January 2026, by the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Malam Aminu Kasimu Idris, during a media briefing at the INEC FCT Conference Hall in Abuja, where he outlined the Commission’s readiness and plans for the forthcoming election.
According to the REC, the PVC collection exercise will run from Thursday, 22nd January to Monday, 26th January 2026, between 9:00am and 3:00pm daily, across all 62 Registration Areas (wards) in the six Area Councils of the FCT. He added that uncollected PVCs will subsequently be available at INEC Area Council offices.
Malam Idris explained that the PVCs available for collection cover newly registered voters, voters who transferred their registration within or into the FCT, those who applied for replacement of lost or damaged cards, as well as PVCs from previous registration exercises that were yet to be collected.
He stressed that the Permanent Voter Card remains the only valid means of accreditation for voting, in line with Section 47(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), noting that PVCs must be collected in person and will not be issued by proxy.
Providing updates on voter registration, the REC disclosed that following the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in the FCT on 12th October 2025, a total of 106,855 new voters were registered. After deduplication, 102,307 valid voters were added to the register, bringing the total number of registered voters in the FCT to 1,680,315, compared to 1,570,307 recorded during the 2023 General Election.
On preparedness, Malam Idris assured residents that INEC has made significant progress, including monitoring party primaries, publishing final lists of candidates, activating BVAS devices, receiving non-sensitive election materials, accrediting observers and media, intensifying voter education, and strengthening collaboration with security agencies and transport unions to ensure a credible, free and peaceful election.
