Why We Can’t Use Electronic Voting In 2015 – Jega

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday, said the commission was handicapped over adoption of the electronic mode of voting for future elections in the country.

Professor Jega stated this at an interaction with the commission, media professionals and civil society groups on plans for continuous voter registration and voter register optimization.

He expressed regrets that despite the fact that voting electronically had become the trend across the world, the commission had been barred from adopting it by the amended Electoral Act of 2010.

Jega said:: “We have recommended to the National Assembly that the statute ban on electronic voting, be lifted because that is the trend in the world.”

Commenting on INEC’s preparation for the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State, the INEC boss said the commission will soon commence prosecution of over 93,000 electoral offenders to serve as a deterrence to others before the November poll.

He further stated that the commission was already taking delivery of permanent voters cards, adding that INEC would take full possession of the cards before the end of the year.

Jega said the commission had cleaned up the voters register and was already preparing towards constituency delineation which will be concluded before the end of next year.

Commenting on the challenges posed by registration of under-aged persons as voters, he lamented the pressures that were usually exerted on the commission’s field staff to participate in the illegal exercise.

He said INEC had already introduced measures to curb the incidence of under-aged registration of voters, adding that persons suspected to be under-aged registered voters will no longer be allowed to collect their voter’s cards until they provided proof that they were qualified.

He said: “If persons who are suspected to be under-aged are registered, we won’t give them permanent voters cards until they are able to provide evidence that they are qualified at their local government headquarters.”

Responding to a question on which of the factions in Anambra State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was recognized by INEC, Professor Jega said the commission recognized only the state leadership of the party which emerged from congresses supervised by the electoral body.

He said: “INEC recognizes only one Chairman in Anambra State chapter of PDP because he emerged from State congresses that we supervised”.

Jega stated further that the commission would no longer condone what happened in the past in the state chapter of PDP, where parallel party congresses were conducted by different factions of the national leadership of the party.

He further stated that the commission learned many lessons from the 2011 elections.

He added: The lessons we learnt from the 2011 elections have guided us in subsequent polls. We have since reviewed our performance in-house and we also appointed external consultants to evaluate the Commission and make recommendations.”