The Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega has said that the commission has made it impossible to rig in the upcoming general elections.
Jega also said that the attacks against him for
insisting on using electronic card readers for the polls were being
launched by potential election riggers.
He stated further that he had anticipated the attacks and as such had no regrets.
Jega stated this on Wednesday, March 25, while unveiling the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in Abuja.
“Let me use this opportunity to reassure Nigerians that we believe
that we have done everything possible to ensure that the 2015 general
election is successful,” Jega said.
“Beginning from today, we are commencing the
rolling out of non-sensitive materials. Likewise, from Friday, all the
sensitive materials will be retrieved from the vault of the Central Bank
Nigeria by our officers, accompanied by security operatives and
representatives of the political parties,” he added.
“We can
see the dust that the introduction of card readers raised. So we
decided to keep piloting and improving on the system beyond 2015,
hopefully, by 2019, the commission will introduce it for the general
election. This is indeed why they have been attacking me because they
know that the card reader machines will help us to address all those
irregularities, starting from the accreditation of voters at all the
polling units,” the INEC Chairman said.
“How can they manipulate the election when all
the information with regards to the number of voters that turned out at
every polling unit is automatically captured and transmitted by the card
reader machines? We have made rigging impossible for them as there is
no how the total number of votes cast at the polling unit could exceed
the number of accredited persons. Such discrepancy in figures will be
immediately spotted. This technology will further make it impossible for
any corrupt electoral officer to connive with any politician to pad-up
results,” he continued.
The spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign organization, Femi Fani-Kayode recently criticized INEC for insisting on using the card readers despite flaws in its operation.