There were indications on Monday that the
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, would on
Wednesday (tomorrow) review the outcome of the
card reader test with Resident Electoral
Commissioners.
The PUNCH learnt that the meeting would also
review the commission’s readiness for the March
28 and April 11 general elections.
An INEC commissioner, who confided in one of our
correspondents, said, “The commission has been
impressed by the testing of card readers. We are so
happy that Nigerians are appreciating our efforts.
“Nothing can stop us from using the card readers,
which we believe will eliminate fraud during the
elections.”
Jega’s Chief Press Secretary, Kayode Idowu, had
earlier on Monday told The PUNCH that INEC had
started “compiling reports” from its field officers,
including the RECs, on the mock test of the card
readers in 12 states.
The states are Rivers, Ebonyi , Ekiti, Taraba , Kebbi,
Nasarawa, Niger, Lagos, Delta, Bauchi, Anambra
and Kano.
Idowu added that a statement would be issued by
the commission once the results were compiled.
He said, “The commission is compiling reports from
the field officers, including the RECs. The
commission will look at the reports and make its
findings known.
“While we are waiting for this, we must also say
that the reports we have received from the media
and Nigerians showed that the exercise was a
success.”
The two main political parties in the country – the
Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives
Congress – have different opinions on the outcome
of the card reader test.
While the PDP expressed concern over what it
called a series of complaints by Nigerians regarding
the exercise, the APC said it was satisfied.
On complaints by some people that the battery of
some of the card readers did not work optimally
during the test on Saturday, Idowu said that was not
true.
“At the end of the exercise in most places, the
batteries still had 60 per cent power unused in
them,” he added.
Idowu also reaffirmed that INEC, would deploy
152,031 card readers for the elections that would
take place in 119,973 polling booths across the
country.
According to him, some polling booths with more
than 4,000 registered voters had been broken into
units within the same centre.
He said, “We have 119,973 polling booths across
the country. However, there are some polling
booths which have more than 4,000 voters. These
ones have been broken into units within the same
booth. The only difference is that all the voters
won’t be in the same queue.
“We won’t have more than 700 voters in a voting
unit or polling booth, but all the voters in a particular
polling unit or booth will still vote in the same place,
but will not be on the same line.”
He further explained that the number of polling
booths and units in each state would determine the
number of card readers to be deployed in them.
But a group, PDP Integrity Vanguard, on Monday
warned that the card readers must be jettisoned
because they could give an undue advantage to the
APC.
The PDP IV, at a news conference addressed by
Anietie Okon and Sergeant Awuse, said, “The card
readers are unarguably a recipe for monumental
national disaster and must be discarded at this point
because of the obvious intention to use them to rig
elections in favour of APC and the consequent
attendant threat to peace and security of the people
of this country.
“In what is a classical case of putting the cart
before the horse, the National Assembly was
deliberately hoodwinked into approving the use of
the card readers days before the test-run that has
thrown up inherent weaknesses of the machine.”
It also raised the alarm that INEC was “creating
additional 30,000 voting points” despite National
Assembly’s opposition.
Stressing that the introduction of “new voting points”
and “incident form” was unacceptable, the group
called on the National Assembly to, “ as a matter of
urgent national importance, investigate the
introduction by INEC of the so-called voting points.”
The group said, “INEC’s action is obviously intended
to surreptitiously circumvent National Assembly’s
express position on the matter.
“We believe it is the clandestine way Prof. Attahiru
Jega(INEC chairman) hopes to achieve his original
intention of using them to generate the tie-breaking
bank of votes and must not be allowed.”
Meanwhile, the Oyo State REC , Rufus Akeju, has
stated that 5,620 card readers would be used in the
state for the elections.
Akeju, in an interview with one of our
correspondents in Ibadan, said, “We have received
6,000 card reading machines already from Abuja.
We expect that more machines could be sent if
there is a need for them.
“We actually need 5,620 machines but the extra
machines are there in case any of them
malfunctions during the election process. We do not
want any delay during the accreditation process;
that is why we have requested more of the
machines.”
The REC, who was in Ekiti State on Saturday for the
mock test of the card readers, said contrary to
criticisms, the device would not delay the
accreditation of voters.
“The machine has 14 hour-lifespan. We did not use
up to 20 per cent of the battery of any of them
during the test-run.”

www.punchng.com/news/jega-recs-to-review-card-reader-test-tomorrow/

Whatever defects or deficiencies they noticed during the testing exercise, should be rectified/fixed before the main election.

It won't go down well with voters who are willing and ready to cast their votes to be disenfranchised by the card reader...