Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, says technology has been able to prevent rigging such that no political party can win an election by a wide margin as was the case in the past.
Yakubu said this on the ‘Osasu Show’ which was posted on the show’s YouTube channel.
He
said the Permanent Voter Cards and the smart card readers had been able
to tackle rigging, hence the reason for the tightly contested elections
in some off-season elections like the Ekiti and Osun governorship polls
last year.
The INEC boss said, “Between 2015 and November 2018,
we conducted elections into 195 constituencies, the largest number of
off-season elections.
“The turnout varied from a little over 50
per cent in Katsina to as low as 2.9 per cent in Ifako/Ijaye in Lagos
and 3.4 per cent in Eti Osa state constituency in Lagos.
“I think
the thing to say about turnout is that because elections in Nigeria
have progressively and incrementally improved, there is no possibility
now that you will have the kind of margins that we used to experience in
our elections before the introduction of technology — basically the PVC
and the smart card reader.
“The elections in terms of outcome
and turnout of votes are becoming more international. You can see the
outcomes of the elections are becoming more and more competitive and
closer to the kind of results we see even in advanced democracies.”
Yakubu said the Commission was ready for the elections, which begin in
less than four weeks’ time.
Source:- Punchng
Share your thoughts