At a meeting with stakeholders on Monday, the Chairman of the commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, said that the commission had put adequate strategy in place to ensure that the card readers are configured according to polling units, making it impossible for the cards to be cloned or faked.
Card Reader Objectives
“You can only vote where you registered.
“If we do not use the card readers, we will lose in many fundamental respects. We have done field and quality assurance tests on the card reader and we are confident of its capabilities.
“Many Nigerians who participated in the demonstration have expressed satisfaction in the use of the card readers.
“Nigerians should be confident that cloned cards cannot be used. The card readers will not read cloned cards,” he said.
He further gave key objectives of using the card readers and the the impact the technology would have on the electoral process.
The card readers will be used to audit the electorate for future elections, eliminating the stress of accreditation and also help to provide statistical information on demographic immediately after the elections,” the INEC boss said.
“We are doing everything possible to make sure that everyone gets their Permanent Voter Cards.”
Provisions For IDPs
On the issue of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps, he said that the INEC had made provision for IDPs to take part in the electoral process, but expressed fears that provision had not been made for all of them.
“We have no time or resources to organise elections for all IDPs in Nigeria. All IDPs in the three north-east states will be able to vote.
“We’ve found suitable locations in and out of IDP camps for easy access and participation in the elections,” he said
Armed Police Near Polling Units
Professor Jega clarified the role of the military in elections, saying: “We have never had armed military men in elections. Military guards the outer cordon around the different states to minimise movement. Unarmed policemen are to be at the polling units. Armed police can only stay 300 metres away from the polling unit.
Professor Jega acknowledged that the election extension had offered the INEC more time to prepare for the elections.
He noted that the six weeks extension of the election had enhanced preparations in terms of operation and logistics processing and in ensuring that there is tremendous value added in terms of the preparations for the elections.
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