Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Asiwaju Kunle Kalejaye, has described the Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) under Nigeria’s new Electoral Act 2026 as “plastic sovereignty,” arguing that the card has evolved from a simple voter identification document into a critical legal instrument in the electoral process.
Kalejaye made the submission during a discussion on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, where he examined the evolution of electoral technology, judicial decisions and the legal status of the PVC under Nigeria’s amended electoral framework.
According to him, the Electoral Act 2026, which repealed the 2022 Electoral Act following presidential assent on February 18, 2026, has fundamentally changed the legal significance of the PVC, particularly through the statutory recognition of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and electronic transmission of election results.
He explained that earlier judicial decisions had established that electoral technology could not override provisions of the Electoral Act.
Kalejaye cited cases including Okereke v. Umahi (2016) and Wike v. Peterside (2016), where the Supreme Court recognised the importance of card readers but held that the technology could not replace the voters’ register because the existing electoral law did not give the card reader supremacy over the register.
He noted that the legal position began to evolve following subsequent amendments to Nigeria’s electoral laws, particularly with the introduction and statutory recognition of BVAS.
According to him, the 2026 Electoral Act has now moved BVAS from being primarily an administrative innovation under INEC guidelines to a statutory requirement.
Kalejaye also referenced the Supreme Court’s decisions in Shinkafi v. Yari and Oyetola v. INEC, which, he said, demonstrated the growing evidentiary importance of BVAS in establishing accreditation and addressing allegations of over-voting.
He further recalled the 2023 presidential election litigation, particularly Atiku v. INEC, where the Supreme Court held that the 2022 Electoral Act did not make electronic transmission of results mandatory in the manner argued by the petitioners.
The SAN said the 2026 legislation had now expressly addressed that legal gap by providing statutory recognition for the electronic transmission of results through the IReV platform.
He identified three major dimensions of what he described as “plastic sovereignty” under the new legal framework: identity, verification and transmission.
“First, identity: you only exist electorally if your PVC is authenticated by BVAS. Second, verification: the card reader report is no longer incomplete and unreliable as it was described in 2016; it is now the primary proof of accreditation. Third, transmission,” he explained.
Kalejaye argued that the development represents a significant shift in Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence, with technology moving from being merely complementary to the electoral process to becoming an integral part of the legal framework governing elections.
He said the PVC has consequently evolved from simply serving as evidence of a citizen’s eligibility to vote to becoming part of a broader chain of electoral authentication and accountability.
According to him, the process begins with the voter’s PVC, continues through BVAS accreditation and the generation of polling-unit results, and extends to the electronic transmission and preservation of those results.
He described the chain as both physical and digital, warning that its disruption through voter suppression, vote buying, loss of electoral materials or failure to upload results could have consequences beyond procedural irregularities.
Kalejaye concluded by linking the development to Section 14(2)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution, which provides that sovereignty belongs to the people.
He argued that the PVC represents a tangible expression of that constitutional sovereignty, with the 2026 Electoral Act providing stronger technological and legal mechanisms for tracing and protecting the expression of voters’ choices.
In his words, democracy does not reside solely in government institutions but also “lives, quietly and fragilely, in the plastic we carry.”
