card reader controvercies! How15 Political Parties Threaten To Boycott Election

INEC chairman

By Evelyn Okakwu

Following the controversy over the efficacy of using  card reader machine  for the  conduct of the March 28 presidential election fifteen political parties and five presidential candidates yesterday asked the Independent National Electoral Commisssion (INEC) to jettison the idea or or risk the possibility of a boycott of the election.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, yesterday, spokesperson of the politicians, Dr. Onwuba Breakforth said "The concept of using card readers for this coming elections as being planned by INEC, has a lot of implications which may negatively impact on the conduct of a credible, free and fair elections on March 28 and April 11”.

“The first drawback, is that this device is relatively a new technology that has not been tested or tried in a kind of mock election or previous formal elections prio to this time”.

Dr. Breakforth said the card reader creates room for manipulation, lack of credibility and manipulations: "The case of Senators Chris Ngige and Enyinnaya Abaribe, whose bonafide voters cards were not captured by the card reader device was a clear case of the technical fault which the card reader is susceptible to."

He further added that such developments could only further heighten the already tensed polity across the nation. “The decision by INEC to commence the test-run of the use of Card Readers in some of select states across the country on Saturday March 7, 2015, just less than three weeks to the commencement of the re-scheduled election, would not provide the Commission enough time to rectify whatever anomaly that would likely arise from that exercise”.

“Moreover, if the card reader should develop some technical problems, there is a possibility that the consequences of such development would affect about 40 (forty) or 50 (fifty) percent of the polling booths nationwide”.

He added that: “In other to avoid the technical consequences of the use of card reader, the time factor in the use of the card reader is a factor that is likely to create chances of manipulation which could result in the massive rigging of the election and ultimately disenfranchise bonafide Nigerian voters.”

The politicans led by three of the political parties leaders, the  national chairman of the MEGA Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), Prince Dare Falade, Presidential Candidate , Peoples Party of Nigeria, (PPN), Prince Dr Kelvin Chinedu Opumu Alagoa, Alliance for Democracy (AD) Dr. Rafiu Salau, thereby requested INEC to: “Stop forthwith, the proposed use of the card reader for this March 28 and April 11 general elections”.