President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerians to be patient with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) due to the hitches with the card readers.
Jonathan, who made the plea moments after casting his vote at his polling unit 039 at Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State also stated that he is hopeful of winning the presidential poll.
The election in the state was generally peaceful with regular police officers and other paramilitary men providing security.
But there were inexplicable delays in several parts of the state as election materials did not arrive on time particularly in Ekeremor and Brass local government areas.
In the two local government areas, election materials arrived at about 3.00p.m and eligible voters had to vote immediately after being accredited, BusinessDay gathered.
Earlier, President Jonathan could not be immediately accredited as the card reader deployed to his polling unit rejected his PVC and that of his wife, Patience Jonathan.
Jonathan spent over 30 minutes before he was finally accredited to vote in the election, a situation which Governor Seriake Dickson described as totally dissatisfying.
Dickson after casting his vote at his hometown, Toru-Orua in Sagbama Local Government Area, urged INEC to resort to manual accreditation in order to address the failure of the card readers.
Describing the presidential and National Assembly elections as critical and sensitive, he argued that such a move by INEC is to ensure that a huge number of voters is not disenfranchised.
He also called for more incident forms owing to the large number of eligible voters that faced hitches with their accreditation.
Also at Sagbama, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate in Bayelsa West, Foster Ogola, told newsmen that there were observed hitches in the performance of the card reader.
Foster noted that the system needs improvement and commended the Federal Government, INEC and the electorate for the peaceful and violence free election in the area.
But as at the time of filing in this report, voting is continuing in several parts of the state due to late arrival of election materials and hitches with the card reader.
A voter at Sagbama, Tony Okubo, described the election as peaceful but lamented the difficulty with the card reader at the Mile 1 polling unit.
SAMUEL ESE
