At a National Security Council meeting at the weekend, INEC was advised to among other things dump the modified open ballot system in order to allow voters to cast their votes immediately they are accredited and then leave the polling stations.
But the electoral commission has insisted that it will go ahead with the election procedure it has adopted which provides for accreditation, waiting before voting and also allows voters to wait behind after voting to get their ballots counted.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman Kayode Idowu told Daily Trust, “The commission has made it clear and the chairman also said yesterday (Sunday) that it is still going to use the modified open ballot system, meaning people will go for accreditation, wait and vote as from 12: 30 pm.”
Police and other security agencies have been giving counter directives to those of INEC on the issue of the electoral procedure, insisting that voters must vote immediately after accreditation and leave the polling stations afterwards.
The Force Headquarters in a statement said voters should not wait after voting and that remaining at the polling stations could lead to breakdown of law and order in some volatile areas.
INEC however pointed out a few days to the aborted polls that the election procedure was used in 1993 where people queued up to be counted and the results were adjudged as the most credible in the history of the country.
During the unveiling of the procedure for voting, PDP and some other political parties opposed the modified open ballot system as well as the directive that voters can wait after voting.
In his explanation, INEC Chairman Professor Attahiru Jega said the commission has “gone too far with preparations on the procedure for elections to make any changes” and that “the commission does not say that people must stay back for their votes to be counted. What we say is that those that want to wait should be allowed to do so as far as they conduct themselves with decorum and they remain law abiding.”
The other major political parties at the meeting including the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the Labour Party (LP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) applauded the procedure, saying it succeeded in 1993.
Meanwhile, Daily Trust learnt yesterday that the rescheduled National Assembly election may not hold in some constituencies in the country as a result of shortage or errors in ballot papers. Discrepancies were noticed on some of the ballot papers released for some constituencies before the postponement of last Saturday’s parliamentary election.
Speaking on how the commission intends to tackle the situation before the new date for the polls, Chief Press Secretary Kayode Idowu said the commission may defer election in some affected areas.
During last Saturday’s botched parliamentary election, it was gathered that the logo and name of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was missing on the ballot paper for Gombe Central Senatorial district.
It was also noticed that the CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) shared the same logo of the latter on the ballot papers for the senatorial elections in Nasarawa state. The logo and name of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) was also said to be missing on the ballot papers for Kwara state.
Idowu said the commission is taking an audit of all such issues. He said “INEC will try to amend some of the ballot papers with discrepancies. For those it cannot amend in some areas that are very few, elections will be deferred to a later date.
“You know it involves printing of ballot papers for some areas and that cannot be done before Saturday. In such cases the election has to be deferred. The commission will announce all areas affected before Friday.”
Commenting on how the commission intends to replace some of the ballot papers already used, Idowu said the commission had made room for replacement and had expected incidents where ballot papers may have to be replaced.
“Those things will be audited and that is already ongoing. If there is need for replacement, allowance has been made for that. If it becomes impossible to replace by Saturday, the affected areas may be part of where election is deferred. In producing the ballot papers there was allowance made for replacement and there is possibility of replacing the used ballot papers,” Idowu said.
In several parts of the country, actual voting already commenced before INEC called off the elections, while thousands of ballot papers were already used. The commission had said ballot papers are coded and serialised with unique features tied to constituencies to check rigging.
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