The Independent National Electoral Commission in Nigeria has debunked claims that registration machines deployed in Ekiti State for the registration of voters are faulty, insisting that the machines were fixed withing the first two days of the registration exercise.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the commission, Mr Kayode Idowu, in a telephone interview on Saturday told Channels Television that the commission had identified the machines that had issues on the first day of the registration and had removed them, describing claims that they machines were still faulty as ‘unsubstantial’.
“We do not deploy hundreds of machines that have been in storage for some months and expect that a few of those machines will not have issues.
The question is; do you still have those issues persisting like you have on the first day of the exercise or the second day? If you look generally on the second day those issues were no longer there. We should not look at the isolated glitches at the commencement of the programme to indicate how the process has gone,” he said, insisting that the process, expected to end on Tuesday, has gone on well.
The commission is introducing the use of a Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) in the Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections as a test-run of the PVC ahead of the 2015 elections.
Mr Idowu pointed out that the turnout of people in Ekiti State and Osun State to collect the PVC had not been encouraging.
Just about 50 per cent of the cards have been collect and the commission has made arrangements to make the cards available at the local council for collection.
“It is expected that they will come out to collect those cards because that is what will be used for the election.
“We will keep on sensitising the populace as we go towards the 2015 election,” he said.
The issue of irregularities with voters data in the register, as witnessed in the governorship election held in Anambra State late last year, according to the commission, has been addressed with the commission releasing the details of the register six months before the election for registered voters to confirm their data.
“As far back as early February, the commission held a stakeholders’ meeting with political parties in Ekiti and Osun States, the register as it exists today was given to them and this is more than six months before the election and this was to enable the people to check their names on the register and ascertain their status.
“We have explained that once you do not get your permanent voters’ card and could not find your name in the register, all you need to do is to come out for capturing,” Mr Idowu explained.
To further ensure that these irregularities are reduced to the barest minimum, the commission has also made SMS and online platform available for voters to check whether their names are on the register.
The process requires a voter to send the name of his state, surname and the last five digits on his voter’s card to designated numbers for confirmation.
Mr Idowu said that “with these opportunities, there is no reason for anybody to wait till Election Day to check out whether his name is on the voters’ register or not”.
He also pointed out that the commission had discovered that voters that registered in some other states had moved to Ekiti State and had registered again, a development had led to shortage of materials in Ekiti State.
He stressed that it was a wrong approach and advised voters who intend to vote in places other than where they registered to apply for a transfer of their data.
