Suspend use of PVC card readers, Fayose tells INEC

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to suspend the use of smart card readers for the conduct of this year’s general elections.

Fayose, who called the attention of the electoral body to the many flaws detected last Saturday during INEC’s test run exercise in 12 selected states in the country, noted that it would be a great disservice to the nation on the part of the commission to start experimenting issues like presidential election due to alleged overzealous attitude of the chairman of INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega.

According to the statement issued in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said he was not against the use of any technological device to ensure credible elections but the flaws recorded during the test run exercise were too fundamental to be ignored.

He said:

“Unless INEC has an agenda that is different from the conduct of free, fair and credible elections, the use of the card readers should be suspended for future elections so as to enable proper test running of the technology.”

Urging Jega not to experiment on the cards with the presidential election, Fayose said Jega was not being truthful on the commission’s preparedness for the election.

“Jega told us before February 14 that INEC was ready. He heaped the blame for the postponement of the elections on security. However, the same INEC that Jega said was ready to conduct elections on February 14 was testing card readers on March 7, meaning that all the flaws that characterised Saturday’s exercise would have been witnessed on February 14. Wouldn't that have been disastrous?”, he said.

Culled from Vanguard