Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega yesterday told leaders of political parties that all sensitive and non-sensitive materials, especially ballot papers and boxes, had been deployed in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Besides, said Jega:
.the military will not be used, unless in an emergency; and
.the Smart Card Readers (SCRs) will be used.
He said most of the sensitive materials had been kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The INEC chairman also presented some samples of ballot boxes and prototype of ballot papers to the parties.
Jega foreclosed the jettisoning of SCRs, despite the protest by 15 “minor” parties. They were the same parties that had endorsed the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. But the PDP did not oppose the card reader at the meeting.
It was gathered that Jega spoke to the parties in a no-holds-barred manner for two hours on INEC’s readiness.
After the opening remarks, where Jega said some parties were heating up the polity with their utterances and attitude, the party leaders retired into a session on the status of preparation for the elections.
The INEC chairman said: “We are ready for the elections; all the materials (sensitive and non-sensitive) have been deployed. Some sensitive materials like ballot papers are being kept with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“We have been having meetings with security agencies on how to ensure the successful conduct of the poll. The security agencies are on top of their game.
Responding to a question, Jega said “the military will not be involved in the elections; they will only be deployed in case of emergency”.
Jega also presented samples of ballot boxes and why the ballot papers will look like to the leaders of the parties.
“The ballot boxes and papers will be colour-coded,” he added.
Asked to explain why the 700,000 staff for the elections had not been trained, Jega said: “We usually train them in the last week of the elections and it is from the training they go to the field.
“So, traditionally, the commission waits till the week of the elections to train these staff.”
The Director of Electoral Operations, Mr. Kayode Oladimeji spoke about logistics and deployment for the elections.
The parties that raised objections alleged that the failure rate of the SCRs was higher during the last Saturday Mock Election in 12 states.
But Jega said: “The commission believes that the Card Readers add a lot more value to the transparency and fairness of the electoral process. The SCR is not meant to confer electoral advantage on any party. We are going to use Card Readers; it is within the prerogative of the commission to ensure that the electoral process is free, fair and transparent. When we also did the cost benefit analysis, the SCR is far better.”
The Director of ICT of INEC, Mr. Chidi Nwafor, faulted claims that the failure rate of SCRs last Saturday was high.
He said: “All the four objectives behind the SCRs were 100 per cent successful. Let us assume that the fourth objective was not achieved, we have made provision for physical identification of voters once the SCR authenticates his or her PVC.”
Apparently overwhelmed by the detailed analysis of INEC, the representatives of the PDP said: “PDP is not against Card Readers but all the errors or flaws noted last Saturday should be addressed.”
A party source said: “Those against Card Readers lost out at the session because Jega foreclosed any plan to jettison the device.”
When APC raised issues on what INEC will do if voters mistakenly drop ballot papers in wrong boxes, the Deputy Director, Electoral Operations, Mr. Chima Duruakwu, said such votes will become invalid.
He said it was left for parties to “educate their members and supporters” on how to vote right.
Addressing the opening session, Jega said: “The eyes of the whole world are on all of us in term of ensuring that we conduct not just free, fair and credible elections but also peaceful election.
“The altitude or disposition of parties and candidates is what to a large extent determine whether we have peaceful election or not.
“I particularly call on political parties and candidates to ensure that they engage positively in the electoral process.
“It is unfortunate that by actions of some political parties, or some candidates or their supporters a lot of tension has unnecessarily been raised relating to 2015 general elections.
“It is also unfortunate that we have witnessed conflict and violence in the process of elections campaign, and really these are some of the event that we should all work hard to ensure that this negative tendencies do not in any way compromise the conduct of the elections.’’
“We believe that we are adequately prepared for these elections because with the six-week extension, we have added value to the process to ensure that the objective of Nigerians of conducting credible election is satisfied.
“We, on our part, will continue to do our best to ensure that we are non-partisan and offer plain ground for all political parties and candidates.”
Jega urged the parties to “have very credible agents who can participate in these processes, not only to added to the transparency of the process but to ensure that if irregularities occur, they could be easily identified and the evidence would be there to prove that this has happen.
“ We also want to urge political parties and candidates to pay attention to the selection of credible people as agents. “
Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yunusa Tanko said: “While we welcome the assurance given by INEC, security chiefs on the above three items, we will lean our voice on the observation of the card readers which is to be a check on the PVCs and enhance stability towards the elections.
“ We advise strongly that all the observations made by various political parties should be looked into by solving the problems, especially on finger identification and time consumed in the process of accreditation.”
He said INEC should ensure the full production and distribution of PVCs
