The National Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, Mr. Atahiru Jega, has said electoral
malpractices will be a near impossibility in 2015.
He said reforms in the commission were
geared towards achieving this, adding that permanent voter cards would
be issued to Nigerians before the end of the year.
Jega spoke during the annual dinner and awards night organised by the Olivet Baptist High School in Lagos on Sunday.
He said the commission had put in place new and advanced systems that were being used in the world.
He said, “When we came in, Nigerians
were complaining about the credibility of the voter register, which is
vital to ensuring the credibility of the elections. What we found in
place was that the voter register had to be redone, if we are serious
about having free and fair and credible elections.
“We now have a very rich biometric data
base of 73.5 million which has phone numbers of Nigerians. I believe it
is the best that we have in this country presently. We were able to
catch almost a million multiple registration and removed them from the
data base before the 2011 elections.
“We are going to issue permanent voter
cards. As I speak, we have received from the contractor over 20 million
of the voter cards from contractors. By the end of this year, we will
begin to introduce them.”
Jega said the cards, which were imbedded with micro chips, would only be useful to the owners.
He said, “The species of Nigerian
politicians are probably the most reckless in the world, because they
come with that attitude that is often mentioned – the attitude of do or
die.
“So, politicians, as we saw it in 2011
will gather some people and purchase their cards and give to them to go
and vote. They can still buy these card. But even if they succeed in
buying these cards, in 2015, it will be useless.”
The INEC chairman however said the new
process would pose challenges in the areas of training, public
enlightenment, and attitudinal change of members of the public.
“We have spent the last one year
planning vigorously. And our objective is to make the 2015 elections
much better and make INEC one of the most reputable electoral bodies in
the world,” he said.
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Somebody tell Jega. The issue is not Voter's Card. The issue is altering results in favour of the rich incumbebent at the instance of the INEC official! It is the official result not reflecting the people's vote. It has to do with the tribunal judge upholding the fake result even with evidence of vote alteration. The only solution lies in instant transmission of results to headquarters from the polling station if it will be pssible.
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