Stakeholders in Ebonyi State have tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission to improve the functionality of its card readers to ensure hitch free governorship and house of assembly elections by Saturday.
They expressed dissatisfaction on the poor performance of the Commission’s card readers in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections in the country, saying it led to the disenfranchisement of many eligible registered voters in the state.
Ebonyi State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr Cletus Ofoke, and the 2015 Labour Party governorship candidate in the state, Chief Edward Nkwegu, for instance, said there were some discrepancies in the last elections in the state.
The duo, who commented on the last exercise in separate interviews, said much still needed to be done to improve the standard of elections in the country.
Justice Ofoke said, “We had issues with one of the card readers but the INEC staff responsible for repairing them came and fixed it. I commend the security agencies.
“The area INEC needs to improve on is the functionality of the card readers. I don’t know how it was programmed. In almost all polling units we got complains resulting from the card readers. Even in our polling unit at Nwofe Central School 018 it malfunctioned but was rectified after some time.
“INEC should look into the problem with card reader configuration so that in the forthcoming elections it would be easier for people to vote.
“A situation where people came with their PVCs to the right polling units and their names were not found in the voters register can be attributed to human error. This can be a mistake from the INEC data base. If a registered voter has PVC and his name is omitted in the register, personally l feel the voter should be allowed to vote because that error is not from him as the PVC was duly issued by INEC.”
On vote buying, he said, “As a candidate when your impact is greatly felt by your people they will freely give you their mandate; no need for vote buying.”
