‘Nobody has shown how card reader breached the constitution’

FORMER Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in Edo and Cross River states, Mike Igini, has said the card reader did not violate any electoral act.

Igini, while addressing reporters recently said nobody has proved, which aspects or provision of either the Constitution or the Electoral Act that the card reader has breached, “except the constant confusion over the card reader with respect to voter authentication and voting that are separate procedures.”

While the legal luminary also expressed concern over the recent judgments of the Supreme Court on the card reader, he cautioned that the verdicts of the court, regarding the card reader, could spell doom for the nation’s electoral process.

Baring his mind on the courts position and the controversies surrounding the use of the card reader for election, he noted that the reversal of the card reader’s use was a tragedy for Nigeria over its democratic fortune.

He posited no explanation would be complete without properly contextualizing the historical necessity of the card reader and the consequences of the outcome of the ongoing controversies over the use of the card.

Said he, “Elections in Nigeria have often been bedeviled by serial efforts to undermine the electoral process to ensure predetermined outcomes. Whereas the whole essence of the design of election processes is to make the outcome as uncertain as possible to increase the credibility of the process. Due to the constant attempts by contestants, candidates and their sponsors to diminish this uncertainty by manipulating the election process, management structures and managers have undergone many reforms.”

Citing some instances that have necessitated election reforms in the country, Igini said that between 1959 and 1999, the name of the election management agency in Nigeria has changed five times from Electoral Commission of Nigeria (ECN) in 1959, to Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) in 1963, then National Electoral Commission (NEC) in 1986, National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) in 1993 and finally Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999.

He added that the body of the electoral institution has been reconstituted 13 times between 1958 and 2004 “making it about 18 times if you add the reconstitution of the leadership since 2004 to 2015, namely Maurice Iwu, Chief Soyebi, Professor Jega, Mrs. Zakari and professor Mahmood Yakubu.”

According to him, “The process has undergone many changes, changes to voter registration, to voting in the form of, hidden balloting, Pre-Nwosu era, open balloting (Humphrey Nwosu period), and currently Modified Open balloting (Post-Nwosu era).

“We have also had modifications in the ballot papers and result sheets with customization local government to local government polling units, modifications in time of delivery of materials, release of results from wide time frames to immediately after vote counting at the polling unit, collation of results, changes to collation and returning officers as well as presiding officers to graduate cadres and federal civil servants and university lecturers.

“In all of these changes we can see that one thing has been obviously missing. We have been modifying everything, election process, election management structure and election managers, without modifying the behaviour of participants.

This is the one and only remaining weak link, if the card reader and all other reforms must make sense and endure; the time has come to concentrate on modifying the behavior of election participants.

On the legality of the card readers for the 2015 elections and future election in the country, Igini argued that it has not been proven the provisions of either the constitution or the Electoral Act that the card reader has breached, saying: “Except this constant confusion over the card reader with respect to voter authentication and voting that are separate procedures; as evidenced by the decisions of the tribunals in many State Houses of Assembly tribunals matters across the country that did not attract the attention of Nigerians until these recent governorship matters. I have been very worried since last year and l voiced my concern over the future of our elections if the card reader is not given its prime revolutionary place in our electoral system.”

He also disagreed with the impression that the Supreme Court judgments prescribed a redundancy for the card reader. “We must make that distinction because in law the distinction of meaning and hermeneutic clarity is very important. Although the Supreme Court explanatory notes for its judgment is yet to be released as l speak to you now, however, excepts from the Ebonyi Governorship Judgment delivered on February 5 clearly shows to me that there is a serious misunderstanding of the process as contained in section 49 and the usual Accreditation process carried out separately at different times from actual voting that section 49(2) refers to partly and here lies the misdirection about compliance with the voting process in totality as against compliance with voter identification or the accreditation process.

“We must not forget that in the last election, a number of people who were accredited, some went home and never came back to vote, while others didn’t show at all. Now, with just a manual register alone, an induced and satisfied presiding officer can tick all the names at any time as having voted but with a card reader this is difficult if not impossible because the card reader records the time every voter was accredited on the memory and here lies the distinction between accreditation period which is different from voting time. Compliance with voter identification/verification has two options, the use of the card readers with the register and where this is not possible for technical or other cogent and verifiable reasons; the use of an incident form and the ticking of the left-hand side of the register against the voter without denying him/her,” he said.