The Bayelsa government has pledged to mobilise its citizenry to pick up their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to fully participate in the 2019 general elections.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 28,590 PVCs are yet to be collected by their owners while more than 65,000 new voters have been captured in the state during the recent registration exercise.

Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson, Commissioner for Information in Bayelsa, made the pledge in an interview on Sunday at Opume in Ogbia Local Government Area.

He said that the state government realises that people were at the centre of political activities and was taking deliberate steps to encourage people to participate in the electoral process.

“The government of Hon Seriake Dickson realises that politics is about numbers and given the renewed confidence in INEC that our votes do count, we are relying on people and hence mobilising them to participate in elections.

“Since we abhor politics of violence in elections, our strategy is to increase the participation of the people, In Ogbia LGA for instance we used to be second largest LGA, but we have dropped to the fifth, due to apathy.

“So we are looking forward to closing that gap in the future elections,” he said.

Iworiso-Markson who shortly after monitoring the just concluded Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) in the area expressed satisfaction at the turn out of appealed to INEC to extend the exercise to capture all eligible voters.

He said that after the three weeks period of the CVR, prospective voters were still turning up for the exercise which ended on Friday.

“The people of Opume kingdom have shown so much enthusiasm in responding to the call to participate in this civic responsibility to participate in the electoral process.

“They kept coming out and even on the final day of the exercise some people were yet to be captured and we are hoping that the INEC officers would report to the leadership to justify a possible extension,” Iworiso-Markson said