Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has acknowledged the failure of its card reader machines for the conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, saying it is compelled to result to manual accreditation in areas where the machine failed woefully.
The Commission’s chairman, Information and Voter Education Dr. Chris Iyimoga in a statement, said the process of accreditation was smooth in some places; and in others, hitches were experienced primarily with the card reader machines.
He said; “The Commission has been monitoring field reports on the accreditation process since the commencement of the poll this morning. Whereas the process has gone on well in several other places, in some others, it has encountered some challenges, especially with the use of the card readers.
“Consequently, accreditation has been slow in many places and has not commenced at all in some others”.
According to him, “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, has necessitated a reconsideration of this provision of the Guidelines. The Commission has, therefore, decided, as part of the Guidelines for the Conduct of the 2015 general elections, that in Polling Units where card readers have so failed to work, the Presiding Officer shall manually accredit voters by marking the register of voters, upon being satisfied that the person presenting a Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC, is the legitimate holder of the card.
The above not withstanding, in Polling Units where accreditation was suspended to the following day, in accordance with the existing Guidelines, arrangements will be made for voters to vote tomorrow, subject to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
↧
INEC admits failure of Card Reader machines for election
↧