Sometimes stubbornness is a good trait
to have. And we are grateful that Prof. Attahiru Jega, the INEC
chairman, has it in abundance. INEC’s decision to go ahead with its
desire to use card readers in the conduct of the general elections is
being opposed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Just yesterday, the
party’s governors assembled in Lagos to voice their opposition to the
use of card readers. On the same day however, the chief press
secretary to the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, released a statement
giving an update of the field reports from the public demonstration of
Smart Card Readers conducted in 12 states on Saturday. Card readers were
tested in 12 states (two from each geopolitical zone).
The states include Rivers and Delta
(South-South), Kano and Kebbi (North-West), Anambra and Ebonyi (South
East), Ekiti and Lagos (South West), Bauchi and Taraba (North East) as
well as Niger and Nasarawa (North Central).
Idowu said that using the card readers (SDRs) had four main objectives:
1. To verify the Permanent Voter Cards presented by voters at polling units.
Well, some parties have been accused of
trying to clone cards, so the card readers by INEC are vital to ensure
that all cards brought by prospective voters are INEC-issued and
genuine.
Why this is good? On Saturday, when the
cards were used, every single person with a genuine PVC had no problems
having it recognised by the card reader, but the cloned cards were not
accepted. So the objective was achieved 100% unlike with temporary cards
in which there is no way to verify.
2. Another reason for the card readers
is to be able to authenticate each voter biometrically so that someone
just does not come with another person’s genuine PVC and votes with it.
This particular objective was not
totally achieved in the ideal sense but still it did not lead to
disenfranchisement so the PDP needs not fear.
Idowu confessed in his statement that
“In this regard there were a few issues in some states during the public
demonstration.” 59 per cent of voters who turned out for the
demonstration had their fingerprints successfully authenticated. He
however said that the commission, in agreement with all the registered
political parties, decided that “where biometric authentication of a
legitimate holder of a genuine PVC becomes challenging, there could be
physical authentication of the person and completion of an Incident
Form, to allow the person to vote.”
So you see, even when the card is unable
to read one’s finger prints, INEC and the parties have found a smart
way to avoid issues.
3. Another reason for card readers is
because, according to INEC, it provides disaggregated data of accredited
voters in male/female and elderly/youth categories.
Everytime we say we
do not know the actual demographics that voted in our general
elections. Now INEC has come up with card readers which solves that
problem and would help for research and planning purposes.
The great news is that INEC said that on Saturday during the test, this particular objective was achieved 100%.
4. Lastly, it would help check that
problem in the past when some INEC agents just colluded with politicians
and cooked up figures at variance with the votes of the people.
With the
card readers, all the data of all accredited voters are sent to INEC’s
central server, “equipping the Commission to be able to audit figures
subsequently filed by polling officials at the Polling unit and,
thereby, be able to determine if fraudulent alterations were made.”
This also was successful on Saturday.
You see why we need to resist this pressure to stop the use of card readers?
Credit: thescoopng
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