INEC Extends Election Over Card Reader Hitches

 
The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) on Saturday declared that elections be held on Sunday in all polling units where card readers failed to work and could not be replaced in the course of the accreditation.

The commission which also admitted the challenges posed by the use of Smart Card Readers (SCRs) in accrediting voters for the elections, however, directed polling officers to manually accredit voters where it is certified that the person presenting the card is the bonafide owner of the card.

‎INEC further blamed the late arrival of INEC ad hoc officials and election materials to some voting ‎centres in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on some problems it encountered with members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

Nevertheless, the commission said the entire process was successful.

The commission also confirmed the hacking of the INEC website, but assured that it’s IT experts were able to restore it.

Dr. Chris Iyimoga, Chairman, INEC committee on Publicity, ‎at a press briefing in Abuja on Saturday, said the commission had noted the challenges encountered in the use of the card readers,‎ resulting in slow accreditation of voters.

Iyimoga who noted that the commission experienced some challenges in some parts of the country added that such challenges necessitated a  review of the electoral Act to address the need for shift of the elections today.

He was flanked by ‎other INEC national commissioners including, Ishmeal Igbani, Engineer Nuhu Yakubu, Gladys Nwafor among others.

Iyimoga said “Whereas the process has been going well in some places, it has had challenges in others especially with the use of the card readers, consequently accreditation has been slowed in some places and has not commenced in others even though the guidelines for the conduct of the 2015 elections provide that where card readers fail and can not be replaced elections in such polling units will be postponed.

“The scale of the challenge that we have observed has necessitated the reconsideration of the elections guidelines.

“The commission has therefore decided that as part of guidelines for the general elections, the polling units where the card readers have failed to work the presiding officer shall manually accredit voters by marking the register of voters and being satisfied that the person presenting the permanent voters card is the legitimate owner of the card.

“Those notwithstanding, the polling units where accreditation was suspended to the following day in accordance to the electoral guideline. Arrangements will be made for voters to vote tomorrow subject to the electoral Act 2015 as amended.

“The commission re-assures the voting public that it would thoroughly investigate what happened and remains committed to the delivery of fair and credible elections in spite of these challenges.”

He, however, said the number of states affected with regards to extension of election will be communicated soon.

He said “We can’t say at the word go now. But each REC of the federation has been informed. The problems are not in all the states of the country but in a few states and each of them have been informed. We can only get the details at the end of the day.”

Speaking generally on election process so far he said  “we commenced accreditation in fairly good time. In the FCT for instance we had a problem with the National union of road workers but that was sorted out and I want to assure you of progress. I had to visit the office of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the FCT and while there, two observer teams include that of the US ambassador was there to see us And he had gone round some polling units and his assessment at that time at about 12pm was that most of the places and that 85 to 90 percent of the polling units he was very impressed and it cuts across.

“That is not saying we didn’t have challenges. In a few other states of course there were still a few delays but generally the commencement time was quite good across all borders. But like we said and will keep saying we can only do our best but there are other parameters to make up what we call an excellent election. And the process of election has to do with many people.

“Remember that before our adhoc staff can move out for instance, we decided to decentralize the process, sensitive materials were kept in the CBN and in each of these vaults by Wednesday or so, they were taken to the INEC offices in the states, by Thursday they were distributed to the local government areas who in turn took them down to the ward levels and at the Registration Area Centres (RAC) those items were kept.

“The believe therefore was that by 5:30am to 6am this morning, movements to the various polling units would have commenced. But INEC does not move alone before you move, INEC must have the security backup. So there are a number of issues and process that make the entire team play well. But generally it has been quite impressive except for this few challenges that we just faced now.”

Explaining the incident of President Goodluck Jonathan’s accreditation debacle, in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, National Commissioner Ishmeal Igbani said “No one can really say what went wrong. But the machines and card reader did not pick the finger prints of Mr president and his wife but other peoples finger prints were picked.

“Part of the process of using the card reader is that when such a situation occurs and we are aware that such a situation did occur,  we will use the incident report so that is what has been done and the president and his wife has been accredited to vote.

On the hacking of INEC’s website,  National Commissioner, Engr Nuhu Yakubu  said “Our IT experts reported that our website was hacked and it was down, and they worked very hard to rectify the problem by simply lifting all the contents from our site and relocating to another location. So the INEC website as I speak with you now is up and running.”