Spread the love
In a recent interview, Mike Igini, a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) confirmed that the deployment of card readers for the February elections would be a game changer. He explained:
“It would be the game changer in the 2015 elections because the system puts the electorate at the centre of the voting system using their biometrics. It is the new voting sheriff for the forthcoming elections. One card reader is configured for each of the 120,000 polling units nationwide.
A card reader means that only the owner of the PVC can use the voter card, and he/she can only do so at the assigned polling unit for that voter, at or nearest to the place where he/she registered or transferred his/her registration. Also, by doing biometric-driven card reader authentication, the process will leave a more reliable audit trail of who and how many people actually were accredited, rejected and voted, in digital format which is easier to store and reproduce. This makes the question of altering the results as they are from the polling units more problematic for the election results manipulation.
This will be in addition to the customization of the ballot papers and result sheets to each polling unit, making ballot snatching or the use of result sheets or ballot papers from one polling unit impossible at any other polling unit. A number of people think that the card reader will not come, that is why they are still instigating people to go and snatch permanent voter cards, thinking that they will use the old ways to deal with the new approach that we have developed.
So this is the card reader, the battery will last for about 14 hours. Once you come with your PVC, your face and everything about you will show on it, it will authenticate whether the face corresponds with the person that has the thump print. There is a speaker in it that will announce that everything about you is okay before you are given a ballot. As a matter of fact, at the end of the day, we can print a new register with this. So you can see that it is useless for anybody being in possession of the PVC of another person. But when we were in the old regime when INEC was using paper, it was possible without photo for politicians to pack all of them and go to thump print. We have moved beyond this era. So we are at the level of digital while the political class are at the analogue stage in their thinking.
That is what must have informed some of the unwholesome practices. We have now told people that it is useless to go and snatch PVCs. We have a total of 120,000 polling units in Nigeria. As at today, we have received a total of 137,000 in excess of the 120,000 polling units. But we must have some redundancies incase anything goes wrong. So we actually placed order for 137,000 of the card readers. As I speak to you, in Edo, we have received almost 60 per cent of that by the end of week or next week, we are going to receive the last consignment, so we are ready to go. The real challenge now, of course, in Edo is for people to collect their PVCs.
Spread the love
