The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that voting in the ongoing presidential and National Assembly elections will continue on Sunday in areas where accreditation and voting problems were discovered.
Chris Iyimoga, chairman, information, voter education and publicity committee, INEC, said in a statement that in the polling units where accreditation was suspended, arrangements would be made for voters to vote on Sunday subject to the provision of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
Complaints have trailed the failure of the card readers to work hence accreditation was delayed in several parts of the country.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Iyimoga stated that the election guideline was clear in situation like this and said the guideline would be applied.
INEC guideline had stated that where the card readers failed to work and it could be replaced, elections in such polling units will be postponed till the following day.
“The scale of challenges we have observed today has necessitated the consideration of this election guideline”, Iyimoga said.
“Accordingly, the commission has, therefore, decided that such part of the guidelines would apply for the conduct of the 2015 general elections, that polling units where the card readers have failed to work, the presiding officer shall manually accredit voters by marking the registers of voters and being satisfied that the person presenting the permanent voter card (PVC) is the legitimate holder of the card”.
While he noted that arrangements are underway for the voters at the affected polling units to vote on Sunday, he assures the voting public that “the commission would thoroughly investigate to know what happened”, while pledging the commission’s commitment to free and fair elections.
On the challenges observed across the federation especially the delay in the arrival of electoral materials, he stated, “Generally, we commenced accreditation in good time, but there were some problems that we encountered like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) that pulled out of the arrangement we had. That created some delays before it was sorted out”.
“Our ad-hoc staff went out early as planned but we had some delays in movement because we needed the security agencies to give us security as we move materials to the polling units”.
BADEJO ADEMUYIWA
