Machine fails to clear 42% of voters in Niger
Adelowo Oladipo-Minna
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday said 42 per cent of eligible voters with Permanent Voter Cards were not cleared by the card reader machine.
INEC National Commissioner, Dr Chris Iyimoga, while releasing the figures from the 18 polling units in Gwada ward in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, said a total number of 10,243 persons were registered voters with only a total of 1,799 authenticated by the card reader.
According to him “the card reader out of 1,799 eligible voters that turned up, authenticated 1,045 voters with PVCs, leaving 754 unauthenticated”.
“With the figures we have, it shows that 58 percent voters are authentic and 48 percent are not authentic going by the card reader”.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger state have faulted the slow process of the card reader machines in the mock election exercise organised by the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC).
The state chairman of the PDP, Hon. Umar Musa Maali, said “the time spent to accredit one voter is much. If it takes a minute per voter to be accredited at polling units like this that have over 1,000 voters, it is going to take over 1,000 minutes, which is about 16 hours to accredit all the voters. You know 16 hours is more than the accredited time of five hours. I do not know how INEC is going to handle this and improve on it.”
Also, the APC’s’ Publicity Secretary, Mr Jonathan Vatsa, while speaking on his party’s concerns over the internet connection, said “the card reader transmits the voter’s data straight to the central unit for proper collation but this unit lacks internet service.”
Speaking to newsmen during the exercise, INEC National Commissioner supervising Kaduna, Kwara, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja, Dr. Chris Iyimoga said the process of demonstration to the public has been smooth except for a few itches with some card readers.
He said “We are trying to find out if it is the technique by the officer or the level of cleanliness of the card reader.”
Because, as soon as the card is swapped and it says cleared it then means it is your card and you are identified as an eligible voter whether the voters’ finger prints are verified or not.
The card reader kept saying ‘Verification failed’ and over 70% of eligible voters in Gwada ward had failed verification but were said to be eligible since the data in the PVC corresponded with official list and also as the machine identified them as owners of the PVCs.
Iyimoga also disclosed that if the informations given by the electorates are correct, the voter will still be allowed to vote, adding that the Commission has backup to the card reader incase there are cases of malfunctioning.
The process started at 8:15 am on Saturday at the Central Primary school Gwada, Egwa-Gwada Registration Area, Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
Low turnout witnessed in Ekiti
Sam Nwaoko-Ado Ekiti
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) mock accreditation went successfully in Ward 09, Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Saturday, although the exercise was dented by poor turnout of prospective voters in the polling area.
Registered voters in the ward did not come out as expected, with some of the polling units recording as low as 30 people by 11:30 am, in an exercise the commission scheduled to end at 1pm.
At Unit 002 at Dallimore Street, however, 60 people had been accredited in the mock exercise at about 11:48am.
It was also observed that the smart card readers took less than 10 seconds to capture the prospective voters that turned out with their cards.
Technical officers of the electoral commission were also on hand in the case of malfunction of the machine and said the average time for the accreditation was between 4 and 6 seconds.
While there was low turnout too at Ajitadidun/Olora’s compound Unit 006 and at Surajudeen Nursery/Primary School Unit 029, it was observed that it also took between 5 and 10 seconds for the card reader to capture prospective voters.
The Ekiti State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olumekun, who monitored the mock exercise, said the commission “would have appreciated it better if the turn out was better than what was seen” but noted that the objective of INEC, which is the workability of the machine, had been realised.
Olumekun said “we will compile a detailed report of whatever happened on the field and we will file the report to the commission for decision-making.”
On the inability of the machine to be vigorously tried with a large number of people, Olumekun said “it is a machine and it is designed to work. We will take an average time it takes to accredit a single person and we will work on that.”
A voter, Mrs Ojo Taiwo, who was verified at Dallimore Unit 002, applauded the electoral body for the initiative, saying it would help in stemming the tide of electoral malfeasance in the country.
Mixed reactions in Lagos
Chukwuma Okparaocha-Lagos
Mixed reactions, on Saturday, trailed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) field test for smart card readers in Lagos ahead of the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
Sunday Tribune monitored the exercise at some centres a Onigbongbo in Ikeja area of Lagos where 30 polling units were selected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the field test.
At the field test, some of prospective voters hailed the introduction, while a few others said the card readers recorded delays and systemic failure.
Others, particularly those at the Polling Unit 028 were or the opinion that the INEC officials which operated the machines should have at least waited till 4pm before leaving so as to give as many people as possible the opportunity to also have their cards read.
Mr Olufemi Aduwo, the National Coordinator of Rights Monitoring Group, said: “The essence of the exercise is to confirm how many seconds or minutes it takes to do the machine accreditation. In some areas, it takes 20 seconds while in some other it took five seconds.
“If we can accredit up to four voters in a minute, it is a plus; it is a wonderful development; it will add value. We should avoid human error.”
RECs trust Jega —Oyo REC
By Nurudeen Alimi
THE body of Resident Electoral Commissioners in the country has passed a vote of confidence on the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), professor Attahiru Jega, putting into consideration the far-reaching innovations he has been able to introduced to improved the country’s democracy.
Making this known was the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in charge of Oyo State, Ambassador Rufus Akeju, in a statement signed on his behalf by the Head of Voter education and Publicity, Alhaji Ayodele Folami, a copy of which was made available to Sunday Tribune on Saturday.
He noted that: “Among the innovations introduced by Jega-led INEC is the institutionalisation of continuous voter registration as against the time-wasting periodic registration, introduction of cost-effective Permanent Voter Card (PVC), creation of camps at ward level to ensure early and seamless arrival of poll officials at the polling units on election day.”
Machine records 39% failure in Kano
Kola Oyelere-Kano
THE mock election held in Dan Maliki ward in Kumbotso Local Government on Saturday Kano state was over 60 per cent successful, just as the card readers rejected about 39 per cent of Permanent Voter Cards during the thumb-printing exercise.
This is just as the Resident Electoral commission, Alhaji Mukaila Abdullahi, said the issue of rejection of thumb-printing would not prevent the owners of the PVCs from voting during election.
However, some observers interviewed said there was the need to provide water for the electorate to wash their hands, to make it easy for the card readers to ascertain their identity.
Large numbers of people trooped for the mock election, with adequate security personnel stationed at strategic places where the exercise was held .
Most of the voters were women in Hijab.
A presiding officer of INEC, Nasir Immam, while speaking with journalists at the venue, said in his unit, over 39 cases were not captured.
Despite hitches in Rivers, observer okays machine
Dapo Falade-Port Harcourt
UNITED Nations observers have given their approval to the planned usage of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) for the conduct of the forthcoming general elections across the country.
This was despite the admission by the leader of the UN Women observers, Mrs Eno Udensi, that: “While it took about one or two minutes for the card reader to okay one person, a particular person had to wait for 15 minutes before the card reader was able to read his thumb print. But the photographs are showing on the card readers.”
The observer team, UN Women, gave its support to the usage of the card reader machine while monitoring the test-run of the machines in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Dame Gisela Khan had, in a press statement, announced that the test-run of the SCR machines would be carried out in Ward 1, Prominence/Ezimgbu in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area.
The exercise, which was carried out by 188 trained INEC staff in all the 23 units and the 19 voting points of Ward 1, was part of the commission’s resolve to ascertain the effectiveness of the machines.
While the turnout was initially low, many eligible voters were later seen on queue at three voting centres, including Wobia Gate 1 and Chinwenyi Hall, which has three units each and at the State Primary School, Prominence, which had four units.
Speaking at the State Primary School, Orominike, Udensi stated that while there were some minor challenges in the exercise, such would not affect the use of the card readers during the elections.
“The machines are working, even though the thumb printing is failing in most cases. The face of a registered voters appears on the card reader. Some came with oily hands that make their cards difficult to read.”
Also, an INEC staff at Units 4,5,6 and 7 in Orominike State Primary School, said the card readers were hanging while trying to authenticate the data of eligible voters, adding that the card readers worked well in some cases.
Also speaking, the Deputy Whip of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Honourable (Mrs) Irene Inimgba, commended INEC, saying the fact that the machines were working would help to play down opposition to their usage.”
Low turnout marks field test in Bauchi
Saliu Gbadamosi-Bauchi
LOW turnout of eligible voters in Jama’are, the headquarters of Jama’are Local Government Area of Bauchi State, marked Saturday’s mock accreditation exercise conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to test the smart card readers (SCRs) it wants to deploy later this month in this year’s general election.
The field test, conducted in 12 selected states across the country, was held Jama’are B registration area of Jamare’re, at 14 polling units between the hours of 8am and 1.pm.
Sunday Tribune’s visit to some of the polling units, including Azizi Primary School polling unit; Horare Polling unit, Jeyogel polling unit; Yola Polling unit; Digiza Kofar Jauro polling unit and Jabbori polling unit, revealed that registered voters showed some degree of apathy towards the exercise as many refused to turn up for the field test.
For instance, at Yola polling unit, which has a total of 650 registered voters, only 104 people showed up for the test exercise. Out of the figure, only 81 had their fingerprints captured by the smart card reader, while 23 failed the accreditation exercise.
INEC hails exercise in Taraba
Viashima Sylvanus-Jalingo
The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Taraba State has said that it recorded remarkable success with the test-run of the card readers exercise held in the state.
National Commissioner in charge of Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states, Nuhu Yakubu, stated this in Mutum Biyu, Gassol local government area of the state at the end of the exercise.
According to Yakubu, the commission was completely satisfied with the exercise, just as the major challenges experienced bordered mostly on the attitude of the people rather than the efficiency of the process and machines respectively.
Sunday Tribune, while monitoring the exercise in the seven voting centers , found that the challenge was mostly as a result of the application of local dye, Lele, by most of the people, especially women, making it difficult for the card readers to authenticate their thumbs prints.
Source: Tribune
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday said 42 per cent of eligible voters with Permanent Voter Cards were not cleared by the card reader machine.
INEC National Commissioner, Dr Chris Iyimoga, while releasing the figures from the 18 polling units in Gwada ward in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, said a total number of 10,243 persons were registered voters with only a total of 1,799 authenticated by the card reader.
According to him “the card reader out of 1,799 eligible voters that turned up, authenticated 1,045 voters with PVCs, leaving 754 unauthenticated”.
“With the figures we have, it shows that 58 percent voters are authentic and 48 percent are not authentic going by the card reader”.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger state have faulted the slow process of the card reader machines in the mock election exercise organised by the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC).
The state chairman of the PDP, Hon. Umar Musa Maali, said “the time spent to accredit one voter is much. If it takes a minute per voter to be accredited at polling units like this that have over 1,000 voters, it is going to take over 1,000 minutes, which is about 16 hours to accredit all the voters. You know 16 hours is more than the accredited time of five hours. I do not know how INEC is going to handle this and improve on it.”
Also, the APC’s’ Publicity Secretary, Mr Jonathan Vatsa, while speaking on his party’s concerns over the internet connection, said “the card reader transmits the voter’s data straight to the central unit for proper collation but this unit lacks internet service.”
Speaking to newsmen during the exercise, INEC National Commissioner supervising Kaduna, Kwara, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja, Dr. Chris Iyimoga said the process of demonstration to the public has been smooth except for a few itches with some card readers.
He said “We are trying to find out if it is the technique by the officer or the level of cleanliness of the card reader.”
Because, as soon as the card is swapped and it says cleared it then means it is your card and you are identified as an eligible voter whether the voters’ finger prints are verified or not.
The card reader kept saying ‘Verification failed’ and over 70% of eligible voters in Gwada ward had failed verification but were said to be eligible since the data in the PVC corresponded with official list and also as the machine identified them as owners of the PVCs.
Iyimoga also disclosed that if the informations given by the electorates are correct, the voter will still be allowed to vote, adding that the Commission has backup to the card reader incase there are cases of malfunctioning.
The process started at 8:15 am on Saturday at the Central Primary school Gwada, Egwa-Gwada Registration Area, Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
Low turnout witnessed in Ekiti
Sam Nwaoko-Ado Ekiti
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) mock accreditation went successfully in Ward 09, Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Saturday, although the exercise was dented by poor turnout of prospective voters in the polling area.
Registered voters in the ward did not come out as expected, with some of the polling units recording as low as 30 people by 11:30 am, in an exercise the commission scheduled to end at 1pm.
At Unit 002 at Dallimore Street, however, 60 people had been accredited in the mock exercise at about 11:48am.
It was also observed that the smart card readers took less than 10 seconds to capture the prospective voters that turned out with their cards.
Technical officers of the electoral commission were also on hand in the case of malfunction of the machine and said the average time for the accreditation was between 4 and 6 seconds.
While there was low turnout too at Ajitadidun/Olora’s compound Unit 006 and at Surajudeen Nursery/Primary School Unit 029, it was observed that it also took between 5 and 10 seconds for the card reader to capture prospective voters.
The Ekiti State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olumekun, who monitored the mock exercise, said the commission “would have appreciated it better if the turn out was better than what was seen” but noted that the objective of INEC, which is the workability of the machine, had been realised.
Olumekun said “we will compile a detailed report of whatever happened on the field and we will file the report to the commission for decision-making.”
On the inability of the machine to be vigorously tried with a large number of people, Olumekun said “it is a machine and it is designed to work. We will take an average time it takes to accredit a single person and we will work on that.”
A voter, Mrs Ojo Taiwo, who was verified at Dallimore Unit 002, applauded the electoral body for the initiative, saying it would help in stemming the tide of electoral malfeasance in the country.
Mixed reactions in Lagos
Chukwuma Okparaocha-Lagos
Mixed reactions, on Saturday, trailed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) field test for smart card readers in Lagos ahead of the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
Sunday Tribune monitored the exercise at some centres a Onigbongbo in Ikeja area of Lagos where 30 polling units were selected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the field test.
At the field test, some of prospective voters hailed the introduction, while a few others said the card readers recorded delays and systemic failure.
Others, particularly those at the Polling Unit 028 were or the opinion that the INEC officials which operated the machines should have at least waited till 4pm before leaving so as to give as many people as possible the opportunity to also have their cards read.
Mr Olufemi Aduwo, the National Coordinator of Rights Monitoring Group, said: “The essence of the exercise is to confirm how many seconds or minutes it takes to do the machine accreditation. In some areas, it takes 20 seconds while in some other it took five seconds.
“If we can accredit up to four voters in a minute, it is a plus; it is a wonderful development; it will add value. We should avoid human error.”
RECs trust Jega —Oyo REC
By Nurudeen Alimi
THE body of Resident Electoral Commissioners in the country has passed a vote of confidence on the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), professor Attahiru Jega, putting into consideration the far-reaching innovations he has been able to introduced to improved the country’s democracy.
Making this known was the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in charge of Oyo State, Ambassador Rufus Akeju, in a statement signed on his behalf by the Head of Voter education and Publicity, Alhaji Ayodele Folami, a copy of which was made available to Sunday Tribune on Saturday.
He noted that: “Among the innovations introduced by Jega-led INEC is the institutionalisation of continuous voter registration as against the time-wasting periodic registration, introduction of cost-effective Permanent Voter Card (PVC), creation of camps at ward level to ensure early and seamless arrival of poll officials at the polling units on election day.”
Machine records 39% failure in Kano
Kola Oyelere-Kano
THE mock election held in Dan Maliki ward in Kumbotso Local Government on Saturday Kano state was over 60 per cent successful, just as the card readers rejected about 39 per cent of Permanent Voter Cards during the thumb-printing exercise.
This is just as the Resident Electoral commission, Alhaji Mukaila Abdullahi, said the issue of rejection of thumb-printing would not prevent the owners of the PVCs from voting during election.
However, some observers interviewed said there was the need to provide water for the electorate to wash their hands, to make it easy for the card readers to ascertain their identity.
Large numbers of people trooped for the mock election, with adequate security personnel stationed at strategic places where the exercise was held .
Most of the voters were women in Hijab.
A presiding officer of INEC, Nasir Immam, while speaking with journalists at the venue, said in his unit, over 39 cases were not captured.
Despite hitches in Rivers, observer okays machine
Dapo Falade-Port Harcourt
UNITED Nations observers have given their approval to the planned usage of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) for the conduct of the forthcoming general elections across the country.
This was despite the admission by the leader of the UN Women observers, Mrs Eno Udensi, that: “While it took about one or two minutes for the card reader to okay one person, a particular person had to wait for 15 minutes before the card reader was able to read his thumb print. But the photographs are showing on the card readers.”
The observer team, UN Women, gave its support to the usage of the card reader machine while monitoring the test-run of the machines in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Dame Gisela Khan had, in a press statement, announced that the test-run of the SCR machines would be carried out in Ward 1, Prominence/Ezimgbu in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area.
The exercise, which was carried out by 188 trained INEC staff in all the 23 units and the 19 voting points of Ward 1, was part of the commission’s resolve to ascertain the effectiveness of the machines.
While the turnout was initially low, many eligible voters were later seen on queue at three voting centres, including Wobia Gate 1 and Chinwenyi Hall, which has three units each and at the State Primary School, Prominence, which had four units.
Speaking at the State Primary School, Orominike, Udensi stated that while there were some minor challenges in the exercise, such would not affect the use of the card readers during the elections.
“The machines are working, even though the thumb printing is failing in most cases. The face of a registered voters appears on the card reader. Some came with oily hands that make their cards difficult to read.”
Also, an INEC staff at Units 4,5,6 and 7 in Orominike State Primary School, said the card readers were hanging while trying to authenticate the data of eligible voters, adding that the card readers worked well in some cases.
Also speaking, the Deputy Whip of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Honourable (Mrs) Irene Inimgba, commended INEC, saying the fact that the machines were working would help to play down opposition to their usage.”
Low turnout marks field test in Bauchi
Saliu Gbadamosi-Bauchi
LOW turnout of eligible voters in Jama’are, the headquarters of Jama’are Local Government Area of Bauchi State, marked Saturday’s mock accreditation exercise conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to test the smart card readers (SCRs) it wants to deploy later this month in this year’s general election.
The field test, conducted in 12 selected states across the country, was held Jama’are B registration area of Jamare’re, at 14 polling units between the hours of 8am and 1.pm.
Sunday Tribune’s visit to some of the polling units, including Azizi Primary School polling unit; Horare Polling unit, Jeyogel polling unit; Yola Polling unit; Digiza Kofar Jauro polling unit and Jabbori polling unit, revealed that registered voters showed some degree of apathy towards the exercise as many refused to turn up for the field test.
For instance, at Yola polling unit, which has a total of 650 registered voters, only 104 people showed up for the test exercise. Out of the figure, only 81 had their fingerprints captured by the smart card reader, while 23 failed the accreditation exercise.
INEC hails exercise in Taraba
Viashima Sylvanus-Jalingo
The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Taraba State has said that it recorded remarkable success with the test-run of the card readers exercise held in the state.
National Commissioner in charge of Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states, Nuhu Yakubu, stated this in Mutum Biyu, Gassol local government area of the state at the end of the exercise.
According to Yakubu, the commission was completely satisfied with the exercise, just as the major challenges experienced bordered mostly on the attitude of the people rather than the efficiency of the process and machines respectively.
Sunday Tribune, while monitoring the exercise in the seven voting centers , found that the challenge was mostly as a result of the application of local dye, Lele, by most of the people, especially women, making it difficult for the card readers to authenticate their thumbs prints.
Source: Tribune
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