REC rules out voting by proxy

• Large turnout for PVCs collection in Lagos

• EU budgets €4.4m for polls observation 

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Bauchi State, Professor Sa’ad Tukur, has disclosed that the era of voting by proxy is over in the country.

   Meanwhile, the ongoing collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), witnessed a large turnout in Oshodi, Lagos yesterday. The people came out as early as 6:30am for the exercise. 

   INEC had on February 2nd announced the extension of the deadline for collection of the cards to Sunday, February 8th, 2015. This supersedes the earlier deadline of Saturday, 31st January 2015, and is intended to give registered voters the chance to collect their PVCs.

   Speaking at a stakeholders meeting in Bauchi Wednesday, Tukur said INEC has introduced card readers, which would solve the problem of multiple registration and voting in next month’s elections. 

   “If politicians are planning to rig the election or collect other people’s cards and vote for them, then they will be wasting their time because the card reader will screen you and if the card is not yours the mechanism will detect.”

   He said card reader will be able to detect this through the thumbprint and called on the electorate not to sell their cards.

   Tukur noted that there are agitations that INEC should use the temporary voter’s cards, but he explained that the card reader will not be able to read the old voter’s cards and assured that very soon all Nigerians would get their permanent voter’s card.

   He explained that because of the security situation in the country, Nigerians are likely to see the presence of security agencies, especially in troubled zones.  

   In a related development, the European Union (EU) has budgeted €4.4 million for its election observation mission in the general elections in Nigeria.