Despite President Muhammadu Buhari declining assent to the fourth version of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that only smart card readers would be used for the 2019 elections.
The comes as the Commission has downplayed the electronic transmission of results from the Polling Units to the Collation Centres in the forthcoming elections.
The Commission said the enhanced card reader is an integral part of the forthcoming election, even as it ruled out the use of Incident Forms in the exercise.
BusinessDay reports that Incident Forms which involve the manual accreditation of voters in the event of failure of the card reader, was a subject of controversy in the 2015 General Election.
Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this on Monday in Abuja at the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room National Stakeholders Forum on Elections.
The enhanced technological device, he said, would be used for accreditation, verification and authentication of voters.
It would be recalled that President Buhari had on December 7 declined assent to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2018 for the fourth time.
In separate letters addressed to Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, the President explained that signing the amendment bill with elections close by could “create some uncertainty about the legislation to govern the process”.
“Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to the elections may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect of which law governs the electoral process,” he stated.
He, therefore, asked the National Assembly to specifically state in the proposal that the amended Electoral Act would come into effect after the 2019 General Elections.
In a swift reaction, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had described the move as an attempt to truncate the forthcoming election by ensuring that card readers were not used for the exercise.
Although the party had called on its members to override the President’s veto, the Commission said it would not be drawn to such controversies, even as it urged the Executive and the Legislative arms of government to resolve the contentious areas in the bill.
