Irrespective of President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto of Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has worked out strategies to deliver a free, fair and credible election in 2019, using enhanced smart card readers.
The Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill had incorporated the card reader for the purpose of giving legal backup to the technology adopted in authenticating the Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, of those eligible to vote.
The absence of the card reader in the Electoral Act became an issue when the Supreme Court dismissed contentions against the election of some governors on the basis that the card readers deployed were not used.
INEC, it was learnt, has also decided to address incidences of manipulation of the card reader by some delinquent adhoc officials. Read more