Sambo Commends Voting Process

The Vice President, Namadi Sambo has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for reversing to the use of manual accreditation of voters following the challenges associated with the use of the card reader.

The Vice President made the remark after he and his wife, Amina, voted at their Police College polling unit in Kaduna.

He, however, urged the commission to make changes whenever required to ensure that no eligible voter would be disenfranchised.

The Vice President alongside his wife was accredited at about 11:20am local time, after which he described the process as successful and expressed optimism that the election would be free and fair.

After monitoring field reports in the accreditation process, the INEC said it had to adjust the guidelines to ensure that persons at polling units where card readers had failed would be accredited and allowed to vote.

“Whereas the process has gone well in several places, in some others it has encountered some challenges, especially with the use of card readers.

“Consequently, accreditation has been slow in many places and has not commenced at all in some others.

“Even though the guidelines for the conduct of the 2015 general elections provide that where card readers fail to work and cannot be replaced, elections in such polling units will be postponed to the following day, the scale of the challenge we have observed today, necessitated a reconsideration of this provision of the guideline,” the INEC said.