Rigging ’ll be difficult in 2015 – INEC BY VIVIAN ONYEBUKWA The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that going by the measures it has taken, it would be difficult to rig next year’s general elections. Also, the commission has given reasons the nation may not hold all elections in one day. According to the INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, while speaking in Lagos yesterday, during an interactive session with editors, the commission has done a lot to frustrate election fraud, with the view to ensuring credible polls. He revealed that permanent voters cards, now ready for distribution, are designed in such a way that only the authentic owners would use them. The INEC chairman stated that the permanent voters cards are designed like microchip cards, which have details, photographs and fingerprints of voters. He explained that when a voter comes to the polling unit, he would swipe his card in a card reader, which would automatically bring out his details, adding that the voter would be required to place his fingerprint for the machine to verify if he’s the authentic owner of the card. The INEC chairman revealed that if the fingerprint matches, the machine would announce “verified.” If, on the other hand, the fingerprint does not match, the machine would announce “not verified,” and therefore, the person would not be allowed to vote, he stated. With this, he said, politicians, who buy voters cards, hoping to give them to other persons to use, would not succeed, as the permanent voters cards would make this impossible. Another measures the INEC has taken to frustrate election rigging, Jega stated, is the numbering of ballot paper and result sheets as well as designing them to be polling unit specific. He stated that the commission has customised the ballot papers and result sheets in such a way that they would only be used for the places they are meant, as taking them to another areas would rendered them invalid. The INEC chairman revealed that the problem in Idemili North, in Anambra State, during last year’s governorship election in the state, was cause by the mistake of deploying ballot papers and results sheets meant for another local government area to the place. Jega also revealed that the commission would use different colours of ballot papers for different local government areas and states, so that they would not be stolen and taken to other places for use. “We will ensure that colour of ballot papers vary in states and local governments. In fact, we want to colour-code in constituencies and senatorial districts,” Jega stated. He also revealed that the INEC has introduced unique features on the ballot papers, in an effort to frustrate rigging. To ensure that ballot papers do not enter wrong hands, Jega revealed that when INEC takes delivery of ballot papers and result sheets from printers they are taken to the volt of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where they are stored until they would be deployed to areas they would be used for elections. He stated that in order to make 2015 elections easy and more transparent, INEC would create a total of 150, 000 poling units. According to him, each polling unit would not have more than 500 voters. Jega revealed that the INEC is using university lecturers and vice chancellors at collation centres to ensure that rigging is impossible, while revealing that the commission was planning to also use members of professionals bodies, like the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and others to do the job. On holding all elections in one day, he stated that this would be cumbersome and dogged by challenges. He stated that for all elections to be held in one day, the INEC would need to quadruple its resources, in terms of funding, logistics, security and others. Also, he stated that the level of literacy in the country is low and therefore, illiterate voters may not be competent to handle multiple ballot papers in one day. He stated: “One-day election is good practice, but we can’t do it. If we try it in 2015, we will be inviting more challenges. Doing all elections in one day means that we have to deploy four ballot boxes, four ballot papers. The logistics are enormous. We know that Nigeria has high level of illiteracy. It’s not impossible, but trying it will be biting more than we can chew.” He stated that in 2015 elections, two days have been set aside for presidential /National Assembly elections and governorship/state Houses of Assembly elections, as against three days used in 2011 elections. He said that the INEC would see how holding elections in two days would turn out, while expressing optimism that in future, same day election may be considered. Jega also stated that the INEC would not conduct electronic voting because the law prohibits it in the country, adding that when the provisions on this is amended it could be considered. He used the occasion to clarified his comments on the conduct of elections in states where emergency rule is in place, while saying that he never said elections would not hold in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno in 2015 owing to security challenges. According to him, INEC has the capacity to conduct elections in any part of the country.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 06:24:22 +0000
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