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Election shift a blessing, says Jega

By Bridget Chiedu Onochie, Abuja
18 February 2015   |   9:12 pm
• Insists on card reader, 800,000 PVCs not ready  • Declares further postponement unconstitutional • Disqualifies 4m voters over multiple registration THE Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, Wednesday told the Senate that the shift in election dates was a blessing in disguise.   Jega, who was summoned on Tuesday to appear…

JEGA

• Insists on card reader, 800,000 PVCs not ready 

• Declares further postponement unconstitutional

• Disqualifies 4m voters over multiple registration

THE Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, Wednesday told the Senate that the shift in election dates was a blessing in disguise.

  Jega, who was summoned on Tuesday to appear before the Senate on account of the commission’s preparedness to hold the rescheduled elections, was ushered into the red chamber at exactly 11.40a.m in the company of three of his national commissioners and some of his technical support staff.

  In his presentation that lasted for about 30 minutes before he began to take questions from the lawmakers, Jega stated that the six-week extension had offered the commission an opportunity to perfect the electoral process.

  His words: “The period of extension has offered us an opportunity to further perfect the electoral process for the delivery of free, fair, credible and peaceful elections to the satisfaction of the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.

  “We hope that all stakeholders will continue to join hands with the commission to turn this disappointment into a blessing for our country.”

  Jega noted that consequent upon the shift of election dates, the commission met, reviewed the new development and took a decision on how best to utilise the six weeks extension to add value to their operational and logistical preparation for the election.

  “We believe that the effective utilisation of the period of extension will enable INEC to have a flawless, near perfect conduct of the election.”

  Within this period, the INEC boss said that there would be field evaluation, assessment of additional needs, election security, collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and organisation of mock tests for card readers.

  The extension will also enable the commission to “organise additional training for ad hoc staff especially those who are to handle the card readers and our electoral institute has already been mandated and they have already provided methodology and budget for doing this, to intensify voter education and public enlightenment on election day procedures, to intensify arrangement for election day transportation in consultation with the National Union of  Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the context of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which we have already been  signed with the union.”

  On the controversial card reader, Jega told the Senate that it was in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. “They were introduced also, pursuant to the powers granted to the Commission by the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

On card readers, PVCs 

Jega was reacting to speculations that the use of card reader was against the provisions of the Constitution.

  He also justified the use of PVCs, stressing that “the decision of the commission to replace Temporary Voter Card (TVC) with PVC is in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act as amended.

  “An election is said to be validly conducted if it meets certain basic requirements including accreditation of voters. An election cannot be said to be properly conducted if the steps provided by Section 49 of the Electoral Act 2010 are not complied with.

  This section requires that anybody intending to vote shall present himself with his voter’s card to a presiding officer who shall certify that the person’s name is in the register of voters before issuing such a person with ballot paper.

  “The use of the card reader for the purpose of accreditation of voters is one of the innovations introduced by the commission to improve the credibility of the electoral process, especially accreditation.

  “It is not offensive to the Electoral Act or to the Constitution. It adds value to the desires of Nigerians to have a credible election in line with international best practice.

Use of electronic voting

  Jega also clarified that although Section 52 of the Electoral Act prohibits the use of electronic voting, the card reader is not a voting machine and it is not used for voting.

  “It is merely an electronic device introduced to improve the integrity of the voting process. It should be remembered that Section 78 and Section 118 of the constitution grant INEC powers to register voters and to conduct election in Nigeria.

  “Using the card reader has enormous advantages. First, once the card reader is configured, it can only read PVC issued by INEC at the polling unit that it has been configured.  Secondly, it reads the embedded chip card not the back code.

  “It enables authentication of the identity of the voter by matching his or her finger print with that code on the chip of the card. Four, it keeps a tally of all cards read and all cards verified or authenticated with all their details including the time it was done. This information could be sent to a central server using an SMS.

  “The stored information on the server will enable INEC to audit results from polling units as well as do arrangement of statistical analysis of the demographics of voting, something INEC has never been able to do effectively,” Jega said.

  He, however, stated that the card also had its shortcomings. According to him, some fingers could be rejected and a card could cease to function.

  “If a card reader fails or if a person is verified and his finger print cannot be authenticated, we have worked together with all political parties and agreed on what to do if any of these arise. In the likely event that a card reader fails, we have enough spares to deploy before the end of the accreditation at 1p.m.

  “If we cannot replace it before the end of accreditation, then the election in that particular point will be postponed to the following day when a new card reader shall be provided and we agreed with political parties to do this because if we go back to manual voting because card reader failed, we are worried that we will have to revert to manual, because there are many people who do not want card readers to be used.”

  But in view of these challenges, Jega maintained that only those with PVCs would be allowed to vote.

Sanctity of the election dates

  Jega was also challenged on the sanctity of the March 28 and April 11 elections. While he attempted to answer that he would be ready for near-perfect elections, some lawmakers, especially those of the opposition insisted he clarified if elections would hold as rescheduled.

  It was at this point that he informed the legislators that there were areas he had authority and those he did not have authority. 

  According to him, he could only guarantee the sanctity of election based on the areas he had authority. As such, he could not guarantee in entirety that the March 28 date was sacrosanct.

  He said: “There are things under my control and there are things that are not under my control. It is fruitless to give guarantee on things that are not under my control. I will advise you to direct the question of what happens when the National Security Adviser returns to say the military cannot guarantee security of voters, to the appropriate quarter.”

  Jega, however, affirmed that only the PVC card readers, of which 182,000 had been purchased, would be used for the polls, adding that the commission had foreclosed the use of TVCs.

  The INEC boss in an interactive session that lasted four hours and 35 minutes also disclosed that although 75.9 per cent of voters for the general elections had collected the PVCs, 800,000 to one million cards were yet to be produced.

  Jega also insisted that the purchase of PVCs by politicians was a criminal offence even as such cards were useless as they could not be used for the polls.

  The electoral boss also said that through the test-run of the card reader, the battery did not run down because when it was not in use, “it goes on safe-mode.”

  He, however, noted the problem with PVCs was not that of production but that of collection as the voting public had left it too late.

  “I do not see how anyone would contemplate shifting the elections now because it is unconstitutional…Our hope and prayer is that in the next six weeks, things will improve and there would be elections.

  “Buying of PVCs by politicians is useless. We are producing and replacing snatched or stolen PVCs, because they are useless for whoever has stolen or snatched or purchased one.

  “If you allow TVCs, they will come to the polling area, wave their TVCs and insist on voting…We’ve already made progress, there’s no reason to use TVC…Only people with PVC will be able to vote,” he insisted.

  Speaking on the number of card readers, Jega said: “We are buying about 182,000 card readers. Some of them will not work! There’s what they called dead on arrival from the factory and there’s always a percentage that you have to give for that.

  “As I speak with you, of the total number of card readers we ordered and configured, only 503 have failed which is what you can call dead on arrival. So, we have acceptable margins.”

  He also disclosed to lawmakers that the inability of electoral officers to use the card reader was a criminal offence for which there were appropriate sanctions. For the accreditation process, only a minimum of 10 seconds and maximum of 30 seconds are required for each voter.

On IDPs 

 Jega also affirmed that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a result of the insurgency in the Northeast would be allowed to vote. “On the IDPs in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, there are more people living in host communities than in camps. There are designated polling stations that are placed outside the camps so as to enable people vote.

  “If stakeholders feel there’s more security inside than outside, then, we are prepared to go with them.”

  At the end of the interactive session, President of the Senate, David Mark urged the electoral commission to conduct elections that would be universally acceptable.

  He said: “We hope that INEC would take the best decision on the election and conduct an election that would be acceptable. Those of us who are standing for elections in this chamber would also want free, fair and credible elections.

  “Nobody seated here, I can tell you that, wants to come back through the back door. As I said at the beginning, it is for us to assist you to conduct free, fair and credible elections and whatever we can do between now and the dates you have chosen for the election, please, do not hesitate to come back to us.”

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