2027 elections: how to collect your PVC

What happened

INEC chairman Joash Amupitan announced on October 5 that nationwide collection of permanent voter cards (PVCs) for the 2027 general elections would begin on October 9. For the first week, until October 15, cards were available at ward (registration area) centres while the voters’ register was on display for claims and objections. INEC officials said collection would then continue at the commission’s local government offices.

The new cards belong to the 10,772,421 people who registered in INEC’s Continuous Voter Registration between August 2025 and July 2026. Voters who moved their registration, asked for a replacement card or corrected their details are also collecting new cards, and cards left over from earlier exercises can be collected too.

Amupitan said the national register now has more than 103 million voters, after a final biometric check for duplicate registrations.

Why it matters

The elections are earlier than first planned. After President Bola Tinubu signed the Electoral Act 2026 in February, INEC moved the presidential and National Assembly elections to January 16, 2027, and the governorship and state assembly elections to February 6, 2027. Under the previous timetable they were due on February 20 and March 6.

That leaves less than three months to collect cards, and registration has closed. INEC described the third phase of registration, which ended on July 26, 2026, as the final window before the elections.

Many cards go uncollected. Before Osun’s governorship election in August, INEC said 432,843 PVCs in the state had not been collected, against 1,955,657 that had.

What happens next

INEC has not announced when collection will end. We will update this explainer when it does.

Amupitan said a new printable PVC, introduced under section 18(1) of the Electoral Act 2026, will shorten the wait for cards and let voters whose cards are lost or stolen get replacements without waiting months. We will add the steps for getting one when INEC publishes them.

Sources: INEC (statements by chairman Joash Amupitan and INEC officials in Ekiti), Premium Times, Daily Trust, Pulse, INEC voter guidance.