Worried by the large-scale irregularities that characterised the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections in Niger State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state has warned that any community that refuses to allow the use of smart card readers during the next Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly polls would have the results of the affected area cancelled.
INEC
said the non use of the smart card readers contravenes the Electoral
Act, insisting that the smart card readers were integral part of the
electoral process and therefore mandatory for it to be used during the
election.
Resident Electoral Commissioner in Niger State,
Professor Sam Egwu, gave the warning in Minna on Tuesday after
inspecting materials for next Saturday’s elections.
The INEC
warning is sequel to complaints by local government returning officers
for the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state, that
the presiding officers were forced to drop card readers machines for
manual voting in no fewer than 10 out of the 25 local government areas
of the state.
According to Egwu, the commission discovered that
in some parts of the state during the presidential and National Assembly
elections, voters refused to use the smart card readers under the guise
that the machines failed to function.
“I am aware we had
challenges with the card readers in some areas; there was popular
pressure to abandon the smart card readers; let me warn that failure to
use the card readers the consequences will be very grave
“We will put zero for any polling unit where the card readers are not used,” Professor Egwu declared.
He
also said that there was no link between the networks of the
telecommunications service providers and smart card readers, insisting
that card readers operate independently of telephone networks.
Professor
Egwu disclosed that the commission was ready for the conduct of the
governorship and House of Assembly elections, saying that it had
received all the sensitive materials.
“All the sensitive
materials are here in Niger State; we have scrutinised them, we have
batched them local government by local government; we don’t have any
shortage.”
He added that the materials would be sorted out polling unit by polling unit and despatched on Friday.
Professor
Egwu said 31 political parties were fielding candidates for the
governorship election in the state while 371 candidates from 27
political parties would jostle for the 27 assembly seats in the state.
The
resident electoral commissioner was of the view that Saturdays election
“will be more competitive, because all politics are local; elections on
March 9 are local; people who did not vote the last time want to vote
this time around.”
He, however, called on voters to conduct
themselves in orderly manners during and after the election so that they
would not run foul of the law.
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