There is growing public belief that the newly enacted Electoral Act now permits voters to use downloadable\/printed PVCs for accreditation and voting. However, this is not supported by a holistic reading of the law as written, as it does not expressly define such copies as substitutes for the Permanent Voter\u2019s Card required for accreditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1) PVCs remain the\nrequired accreditation document<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 47<\/strong> is explicit: anyone intending to vote must\npresent for accreditation and provide a Permanent Voter\u2019s Card (PVC).<\/strong>\nThe law does not<\/strong> say \u201cPVC or downloadable copy,\u201d and it does not\nredefine a downloadable printout as a PVC. In fact, a proposal for an electronically\ngenerated voter identification, including a downloadable voter\u2019s card with a\nunique QR code for accreditation was proposed and deliberated but rejected by\nNASS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2) The Law still treats\nPVCs as Commission-issued, not self-printed<\/p>\n\n\n\n Section 16\n(1<\/strong>) dealing with \u201cPower\nto print or issue voters\u2019 card<\/em><\/strong>\u201d provides that INEC should design,\nprint, and control issuance of PVCs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Section\n18(3)<\/strong> dealing with \u201cPower\nto issue replacement permanent voters\u2019 cards<\/em><\/strong>\u201d goes further: any\nreplacement PVC must be issued by an electoral officer,<\/strong> marked \u201cREPLACEMENT<\/strong>,\u201d\nand dated. That is the opposite of a self-printed card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3) So where did a\n\u201cdownloadable copy\u201d clause appear, and\nwhat does it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Section\n18(1)<\/strong> of the passed\nElectoral Bill \u2013 also dealing with lost\/damaged PVCs and their replacement \u2013\ncontains a proviso that nothing shall prevent a card owner from printing a\ndownloadable replacement copy. But it fails to clarify what that copy is for\nand importantly, it does not link it to accreditation under Section 47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4) There is also a\nstrict 90-day cut-off for replacement PVC issuance<\/p>\n\n\n\n Section\n18(2<\/strong>) prohibits the issue\nof replacement PVCs less than 90 days before polling day<\/strong>. If a\ndownloadable copy were meant to serve as a voting credential, this safeguard\nwould be easily bypassed, yet the law\ndoes not say that the downloadable copy overrides the 90-day rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5) This looks like a\ndrafting gap, not a new voting right<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read as a\nwhole, the law maintains a physical, INEC-issued PVC system for accreditation,\nwhile inserting a \u201cdownloadable copy\u201d line without defining its legal effect.\nThat internal inconsistency is best understood as a drafting gap or a\nclean-up\/editing oversight, not a clear authorisation to vote with printed\ndownloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottom\nline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Accreditation still\nrequires a PVC (Section 47).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Replacement PVCs are\nofficer-issued and time-restricted (Sections 18(2)\u2013(3)).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cdownloadable\ncopy\u201d line is not drafted clearly enough to make it a lawful alternative\naccreditation credential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If uncorrected,\nthis ambiguity could fuel misinformation and disputes at polling units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is growing public belief that the newly enacted Electoral Act now permits voters to use downloadable\/printed PVCs for accreditation and voting. However, this is not supported by a holistic reading of the law as written, as it does not expressly define such copies as substitutes for the Permanent Voter\u2019s Card required for accreditation. 1) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3981,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions\/3981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}