• First step against
rigging begins, says Secondus
The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that over 300,000 ineligible voters were
dropped after the Automatic Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) screened
out their names.
The commission noted that
that was part of effort aimed at ensuring a clean voters' register ahead of
2019 general election.
Consequently, the
electoral body will tomorrow publish the voters’ register across the country.
This is coming as the
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus,
urged voters to troop out to their various polling booths to check their names
during the four-day display of the voters’ register as the first step against
rigging the 2019 elections.
The Chairman of INEC,
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this
on Monday in Abuja when ECOWAS Pre- Election Fact-Finding Mission paid him a
courtesy visit at the commission’s headquarters, where he assured the group that
the commission would continue to perfect and improve it processes and deliver logistics and the functionality of
technology.
According to him, “For
the registered voters...as at last week before I travelled, I was told that
over 300,000 names were dropped after the Automatic Fingerprints Identification
System (AFIS). But cleaning the voters' register is not just the responsibility
of the commission, it is also the responsibility of every Nigerian.”
AFIS is a system used by
the electoral body to check for multiple registrations.
Yakubu said based on the
provision of the law, the commission would between November 6 and 12, display
the voters' register for claims and objections in 120, 000 polling units
nationwide.
He said: “I will like to
use this opportunity to appeal to Nigerians to check when we displayed the
register so that they can draw the attention of the commission to the
prevalence if any of any ineligible person so that we can further clean up the
voters’ register.
“Let me say that as far
as the commission is concerned, we are prepared, and we have to be preparing
for the 2019 general election. In fact we can say that the 2019 general
election is perhaps the most deliberately well-planned elections in our
history.”
The electoral body said it would conduct
elections into 1,558 constituencies in 2019, including, one presidential
constituency, 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 29
governorship elections, 991 state constituencies and 68 constituencies in the
FCT for the area council, the chairmen and councillors, making a total of 1,558
constituencies.
On his part, the leader
of the delegation, Mohammed Ali Monte, said the visit was aimed at getting an
update on the preparation of INEC ahead of the 2019 elections.
He added that the
delegation also wanted to know the condition under which the election would be
conducted to gather information from INEC on how prepared the commission is.
Meanwhile, Secondus has
said the desire to rescue Nigeria from the clueless All Progressives Congress
(APC) government would be meaningless if everything pertaining to voting is not
sorted out ahead of the 2019 elections.
The PDP national chairman
in a statement issued on Monday by his
Media Aide, Mr. Ike Abonyi, stressed that the essence of the four-day display
as stipulated by the Electoral Act is to ensure that no voter is
disenfranchised, adding that this is the first step to avoid it.
According to him, “Cross
checking and confirming the details ahead of the election is a mechanism put in
place to reduce attempts by the electoral umpires to manipulate the system by
saying that names of voters are not available.
"By cross checking
and re-cross checking, the voters wittingly would have begun the battle to frustrate
rigging of the election.”
Secondus, said INEC should
ensure that the registers are not only displayed at the polling booths but that
the correct ones to be used for the election are the ones on display.
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