Issued: 3.00pm, Monday, 9th March 2015
Ahead of the 2015 general elections scheduled for March 28th and April 11th 2015, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted a field test of the smart Card Readers in 225 Polling Units (PUs) and 358 voting centres across 12 States of Nigeria on Saturday, 7th March 2015.
Although the Card Readers and PVCs had been demonstrated amongst various stakeholder groups, the most recent being the Chairman of the Commission on the floor of the Senate, this was the first time it was being demonstrated under ‘election type’ conditions.
The locations for the Card Reader demonstrations were Aguata (Anambra), Jama’are (Bauchi), Oshimili (Delta), Abakaliki (Ebonyi), Ado-Ekiti (Ekiti), Kumbotso(Kano), Bunza (Kebbi), Ikeja (Lagos), Kokona (Nasarawa), Shiroro (Niger), Port-Harcourt City (Rivers) and Gasso (Taraba).
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room) received field reports from its deployed observers and other election observer networks from Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Abakaliki, Ado-Ekiti, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger and Rivers States.
General Observations:
Our observations are listed below:
The exercise was conducted in a largely orderly and peaceful manner across the States.
In most PUs visited, the materials and INEC officials were deployed by 8am and the mock accreditation exercise started on time. However, there were few exceptions (in Nasarawa State for instance) where officials were late especially in the rural areas.
Presence of security agents and senior INEC staff in most PUs. The officials were also able to use the machine effectively and displayed sufficient level of understanding of the Card Reader.
There was a low turnout of voters for the mock accreditation exercise due to inadequate sensitization on the part of INEC. Community leaders were seen mobilizing people to come out. In Ekiti State, voters were initially scared to come out because of allegations of being arrested if the Card Reader could not verify their PVCs. Even people that had no reason to be scared were unwilling to verify their cards.
The Card Readers functioned properly with occasional connectivity issues and the verification process of the PVC was almost seamless except for one case of conflicting details on the PVC and Card Reader, this was in Niger State.
There were several reports of delays and challenges in the authentication of fingerprints. However, people were asked to fill incident forms, which did not stop them from being accredited but slowed the process.
In some communities, there were complaints by registered voters who had still not received their PVCs.
There were a few cases of acts of aggression towards INEC officials by some party agents in Niger State, however there were no acts of violence observed.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
INEC should intensify its efforts on voter education and civic education program that fully educates the citizens as to why and how they must vote with the PVC. We implore INEC to use all the resources at its disposal for voter education and leverage on its access to phone numbers of registered voters and communicate directly with them via SMS. This must be regarded as high priority due to the low turnout of voters as most of them expressed their lack of knowledge of the functionality of the Card Reader and the essence of the mock accreditation exercise.
INEC should endeavor to make alternative Card Readers available and accessible on Election Day to avoid unnecessary delay in the accreditation process.
INEC should develop a process of dealing with the issue of discrepancies of details on the PVC and the Card Reader in a way that the Card Reader can be reconfigured in a timely manner so as to avoid disenfranchisement of any voter.
INEC should work on processes and options that will facilitate and fine-tune the biometric authentication process.
Adequate provision for transportation must be made for INEC staff especially in the rural areas as delay in deployment of staff and materials on Election Day will be unacceptable.
CONCLUSION
INEC’s demonstration of the use of the Card Reader and PVC passed the integrity test and must be commended. On the basis of the test and assurances of improvement, Situation Room calls on the full use and deployment of the Card Readers andPVCs for the 2015 Nigeria general elections.
It should be noted that the exercise was fairly successful. INEC officials performed their duties and functions in a professional manner in collaboration with security personnel. No friction was recorded between INEC officials and the voters, and clearly, the voters fully embraced the card reader technology and cooperated with INEC officials.
The Situation Room calls on Nigerians to provide INEC with all the support it needs in order to secure Nigeria’s democratic process and future in a free and fair election. Registered voters who have not collected their PVCs should also avail themselves of the extension of the PVC collection to 22nd March 2015 and do so.
The Situation Room also calls on political parties, faith based organizations, other civic groups and indeed all stakeholders to relentlessly continue in their implementation ofprogrammes aimed at sensitizing their supporters and the public.
The Situation Room is made up of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria and includes such groups as Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), CLEEN Foundation, Action Aid Nigeria, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD),Enough is Enough Nigeria, Wangonet, Partners for Electoral Reform, JDPC andYouth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA), CWAE. Others are Development Dynamics, Human Rights Monitor, Election Monitor, Reclaim Naija, Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, CITAD, Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), CISLAC and several other CSOs numbering more than Sixty.