INEC admits lapses in voter cards distribution

INEC admits lapses in voter cards distribution

Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) distribution was shoddy in Lagos, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) admitted yesterday.
Besides, it explained that the loss of the data of no fewer than one million people who registered to vote in Lagos State is partly responsible for the poor distribution of the cards.
The distribution of the PVC billed for Friday till yesterday has been problematic.
The distribution was not done in nine of the 20 local government councils in the state – among them Governor Babatunde Fashola’s Surulere Constituency, Deputy Governor Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire’s Alimoso and Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji’s Epe Constituency.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) said INEC had designed the programme to fail as part of a massive rigging plot.
Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun took on INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner Mr. Sam Olumekun yesterday. The REC announced the extension of the distribution till today.
Lagos and Kano RECs also extended the collection of cards till today.
APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said INEC and the Presidency had colluded to rig the 2015 election for the PDP “from the data to the end” .
Tinubu said: “You have not been able to rectify the anomalies, irregularities that might be involved. You have not been able by now to even start the exercise of those who are 18 years and above that should be captured and given the right to vote.
“And you will have 30 days minimum, according to the Electoral Act, to display the comprehensive voters register.”
There are also complaints in Plateau State where REC Habu Zarma said more than one million of 2.3million would-be voters were yet to be captured.
He said “we also had problems with registration officials; they knew they did not actually captured some voters, but asked them to go.”
But INEC denied that it had delisted some voters in Lagos State. In a statement yesterday, INEC Chair Prof. Attahiru Jega’s spokesman Kayode Idowu, said: “In particular, it is completely false that INEC has removed the records of 1.4 million persons from the Register of Voters compiled in 2011 in Lagos State. It is true that at the end of the 2011 general registration exercise, the Commission announced a figure of 6.1 million registrants in the state.
“But when that data was subjected to the Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) software, 82,892 multiple registrations were eliminated. Also, there was the technical challenge of loss of data and incomplete data affecting about one million records – mostly in 1,792 polling units that were identified and made public before the present exercise. That was why / how the Post-Business Rule figure for Lagos State (on the basis of which PVCs were printed) came down to about 4.6 million registrants.
“For avoidance of doubt, a pre-acknowledged data loss and incomplete data of some registrants is not a ‘conspiracy’ issue as has been alleged by some notable persons. It is a back-end technical challenge that is far from sealing the fate of affected persons, and for which INEC has already put in place measures to ensure redress. The Commission has made provision for eligible persons for whom PVCs could not been printed due to data loss or defective data to come out from Wednesday, November 12th to Monday, November 17th, 2014 for their data to be recaptured during the CVR. In special consideration for the 1,792 polling units in Lagos State where the challenge of data loss is much pronounced, the CVR will take place at the polling unit level, as against the Registration Area (RA) level in other parts of the state.
“The Register of Voters is the most important bedrock of the credibility of any election. It is, therefore, not in the best interest of the political process, or indeed the enlightened self-interest of the political elite, to needlessly impugn the integrity of the Register. INEC hereby reassures the public of its unwavering sincerity of purpose; which is the reason it has always come clean on its operations, processes as well as challenges.
“The Commission regrets the inconvenience caused members of the public by the initial hitches in the present exercise and pledges to attend to every eligible registrant within the scope of its outlined schedules. The Commission also restates its determination to ensure that the 2015 general election meets up to global best standards, and solicits the cooperation of all Nigerians in this regard.”
Idowu added that INEC is strongly committed to ensuring that every properly registered voter get his / her Permanent Voter Card (PVC) for the 2015 general election.
“This reassurance is against the backdrop of temporary challenges that have been experienced in the third phase of the distribution of PVCs in some states, which the Commission has been making vigorous efforts to remediate.
“INEC has since Friday, November 7th, 2014, been distributing PVCs to registered voters in nine states across the country under the third phase of the exercise. Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) is scheduled to hold in the same states from Wednesday, November 12th to Monday, November 17th, 2014. Similar exercises have already been conducted in 24 other states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under the first and the second phases of the programme.
“The Commission deferred the distribution of PVCs in four other states it had earlier listed for this third phase because the cards for those states have not been fully delivered by printers. It is partly for the same reason that the Commission rescheduled the distribution of PVCs in limited areas of Lagos and Nasarawa states. The outstanding cards will, however, be certainly distributed in good time before the 2015 general election.
“They are presently being produced and have been scheduled for distribution under the fourth phase of the exercise from Friday, November 28th to Sunday, November 30th, 2014.”
APC: it’s plot to rig
The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday raised the alarm over the three-day distribution of the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) in 12 states. It alleged that the process was intentionally programmed to fail in order to disenfranchise voters in the states with the highest number of voters.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the fact that most of the 12 states in which the process has been largely botched have the highest number of voters and are under the control of the APC point to a clear collusion between INEC and the PDP. The card distribution was yesterday extended in Lagos, Ogun and Kano states. It will now end today.
It said most registered voters were unable to collect their PVCs because INEC engaged in a programmed incompetence to swing the elections in favour of the PDP, in what is a clear case of rigging at source.
‘’There is no doubt that this programmed incompetence has emanated from just one source, the ICT unit of INEC, with the intent of sabotaging the PVC distribution process in key states, hence we are calling on INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega to institute an internal inquiry into the botched exercise with a view to fishing out the fifth columnists who are behind the sabotage, meting out the necessary punishment to them.
‘’If INEC is to organise a free, credible and transparent election next February, it must quickly return to the drawing board to fashion out how to ensure that all Nigerians who are eligible to vote are able to do so without hindrance, and also purge itself of the fifth columnists within its ranks who are bent on sabotaging the elections’’.
The party said it is curious that most of the affected states (Kaduna, Kano, Edo, Plateau, Ogun, Imo, Borno, Rivers, Lagos, Nasarawa, Katsina, Niger) are either opposition strongholds or harbour the highest huge number of voters.
‘’This is highly suspicious, against the background of available information that the PDP-led Federal Government is working to disenfranchise voters in opposition strongholds during the forthcoming polls,’’ it said..
The APC said the unmitigated disaster that the PVC distribution turned out to be in those states raises some questions: Why did INEC put those states together for the PVCs distribution exercise in the first instance? Why did INEC announce the dates for the distribution of PVCs in the states if the electoral body was not ready? And why was a process that has taken INEC four years to plan end up being so shoddy?
The party said having realised it cannot win a free and fair elections in 2015, the PDP has come up with the plan to suppress the votes in the APC states which also harbour the highest number of registered voters, especially Lagos, Rivers, Kano and Sokoto states, wondering why the exercise was better organised in states without a huge number of votes.
‘’We know their two-pronged game plan to skew the 2015 general elections in favour of the PDP. One is to mess up the collection of PVCs in states with the highest number of registered voters which also fall under the control of the APC, with the aim of suppressing the votes in those states.
‘’The second approach is to programme the voter’s registration exercise in those states, which also have a high number of people who are due for registration, so the states will not meet the requirement to participate in next year’s election since INEC would not have finished the voter’s registration process in those states.
‘’Going by the poor state of the registration machines which cannot register more than 50 voters a day each; the non-available or non-functioning printers and other problems, INEC cannot obviously meet the deadline to register eligible voters in those states before the next elections,’The plan, therefore, is to postpone the elections in the states to a later date, so the PDP-led federal government can then use the Ekiti formula that includes massive militarisation and widespread intimidation to prevent a free and fair elections in the states. That is why we believe that INEC’s shoddy PVC distribution exercise in those states constitute a programmed incompetence that was jointly formulated by INEC and the PDP,’’ It said.
The APC slammed INEC for resorting to lame excuses for botching the exercise, saying Nigerians are not interested in who got the contract to produce the cards but in being able to exercise their franchise during the forthcoming elections.