Card reader failure: INEC office inferno triggers fresh fears in Ondo

Stakeholders tell OLUFEMI OLANIYI in this piece that the Independent National Electoral Commission improved on its performance in the recently concluded Edo State governorship election. They, however, say the problem of malfunctioning smart card readers which reportedly disenfranchised some voters should be addressed ahead of the October 10 governorship poll in Ondo State

Former World Boxing Champion, Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson and many others were on the voter register. The founder of the Christ Apostolic Church, Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, who died decades before the election and other names also were prominent on the INEC voter register tendered before the panel.

This technological innovation introduced when Prof Attahiru Jega was the chairman of INEC has been hailed by stakeholders for the sanity it has brought into the process. The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who lamented the hitches caused by the malfunctioning card reader at his polling unit, said the failure of the card readers showed INEC’s unpreparedness.

Obaseki’s predecessor and former National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, who later became his political archenemy, also complained about the smart card reader in his polling unit. But the governorship candidate of the APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, lauded INEC after casting his vote at Iguododo Primary School in the Orhionwon Local Government Area of the state.

Nwankwo, who is also the Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, said, “INEC should ensure that whatever improvements it recorded in Edo State are not just sustained in Ondo State but should be exceeded. People will not have so much confidence in the INEC if Edo State’s performance proved to be just a flash in the pan and the situation in Ondo does not exceed what was done in Edo. Nigerians believe that INEC has not made the needed improvement.

Mbamalu said, “INEC deployed smart card readers in 100 per cent of the polling units during Edo State governorship election. The smart card readers worked throughout the period of accreditation and voting in over 95 per cent of the polling units. The smart card readers malfunctioned in 13 per cent of the polling units but they were later fixed. They could not be fixed in a small number of polling units.

The Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party in Ondo State, Mr Joseph Akinlaja, also told our correspondent on the telephone that INEC needed to work harder than it did in Edo State in order to restore the confidence of the people in the electoral umpire.

APC trying their possible best

Fear not

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