From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it would deploy a total number of 6200 Smart Card Readers to the polling units and continue with the use of e-tracking for the November 18 Anambra State governorship election.
Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu who made the disclosure during the quarterly INEC consultative forum with the media, also assured that Anambra governorship election would be concluded on first ballot for the first time, insisting that the Commission would conduct a free and fair poll.
He emphasized that though there was no logistic problem so far, the Commission would ensure that every registered electorate collect his or her Permanent Voters Card (PVC), adding that the Commission would not adopt e-transmission in the election.
The INEC boss further explained that while 5200 card readers have been tested, trusted and ready for deployment, the remaining 1000 machines would soon be ready, disclosing that the Commission might conduct a by-election into the vacant State House of Assembly on the same day of the governorship poll.
“We are ready to conduct the November 18 Anambra State governorship election.
During our meeting with the Residents Electoral Commissioners (RECs) last week, we mandated Anambra REC to stay behind for the meeting of the Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security where he briefed us on the preparation for Anambra election.
“The Commissioner of Police, in Anambra was equally present during the meeting and he also briefed us on the security situation in the state ahead of the election.
“The first thing I would like to say about Anambra is that so far, I can tell you that Anambra governorship election has recorded the quietest preparations. Unlike Anambra, we have not had any case of double candidates in the list of candidates submitted to INEC apart from the candidates from the 37 political parties, or litigations. There were issues before the primaries like court pronouncement but they have been resolved after the party primaries.
“Let me inform you that the Commission is ahead in terms of preparation. We need to deploy 6200 Smart Card Readers for the Anambra election in line with the standard since 2015 elections. It will go round each of the polling units and voting points and there will be back-up in case of failure. So far, we have confirmed the functionality of 5200 and we are satisfied with the quality of the machines we are going to deploy in the field. We are fixing the remaining 1000. We have no issue in that area.
“However, the credibility of any election depends on the credibility of a good register. We have taken a giant step with the conduct of nationwide continuous voters’ registration. In the case of Anambra, we conducted two types of continuous voter registration exercise.
“The first was conducted in the first quarter of this year. But because of the forthcoming governorship election in the state, we embarked on registration at Ward level in the state. So far, we have added over 80,247 new voters into the register. Are these new voters going to have their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) before the election? We assure them that they will certainly get them latest on October 15. We want to assure the electorates in Anambra that they will receive their PVCs in good time before the election. We want to start distributing at least 30 days before the election.
“Elections in Anambra will be free and fair. There is no way it will be anything than free and fair. The people of Anambra will determine who their governor will be on November 18.
“Unfortunately, we won’t deploy the e-collection system in Anambra but we will deploy it as a pilot and then we see how it works for the Ekiti and Osun states. We are continuing with the e-tracking but not e-transmission in Anambra now. Ekiti and Osun will be test grounds for the e-transmission. The long and short of the situation is that we are good to go in Anambra,” the INEC boss, added.