2019 Elections: INEC tackles Atiku on use of smart card readers

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Atiku Abubakar, Thursday accused the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) of making a U-turn on its plan to use
Smart Card Readers (SCR) in the upcoming 2019 elections.

The commission, however, promptly denied the allegation, saying
it was false.

The commission had some weeks ago reaffirmed its decision to
foreclose the use of incident forms, insisting on 100 per cent use
of smart card readers in the 2019 polls – a measure aimed at
correcting abuses in previous elections.

However, in a statement signed by his media adviser, Paul Ibe,
the former vice president said there were reports that contrary to
its promise of 2018, made at different times and in multiple
locations, that it would not use the “controversial” incident
forms, “the Independent National Electoral Commission has
backtracked and decided to allow the use of the unreliable incident
forms.”

“This is unacceptable to the Peoples Democratic Party and Atiku
Abubakar. Any decision to use incident forms in the February 16,
2019 elections is an attempt to toe the line of President Muhammadu
Buhari, who thrice refused to sign the amended Electoral Act, for
fear of the use of card readers, which would prevent rigging by
desperate power mongers,” the statement said.

The statement did not cite or clarify the “reports” were INEC
“backtracked” on its plans to foreclose incident forms and make use
of smart card readers.

Mr Ibe, however, made reference with an event on December 10
when INEC’s Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, assured “Nigerians that the
smart card reader has become an integral part of the electoral
process and will be deployed for the conduct of the 2019 general
elections.”

“Our question is this – what has changed between December 10,
2018 and today? Has Professor Mahmood Yakubu caved into pressures
from anti-democratic forces?

“At ₦143 billion, it is safe to say that more than enough funds
were appropriated for the INEC to acquire and distribute Smart Card
Readers, as such there is no reason for this 180 degree turn.”

But in a swift rebuttal, the INEC faulted Mr Abubakar’s
claims.

“Did you get any statement from INEC saying we will not use
smart card readers? If you want to believe what someone sat on his
office and said, I have no comment about that. What I am saying is
that we have concluded we will use smart card readers (in 2019
elections)”, INEC Director of Publicity and Voter Education,
Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, told PREMIUM TIMES Thursday evening over the
phone.

“We have said categorically there will be no incident forms,”
the official noted.

The electoral body used smart card readers in 2015 general
elections as well as incident forms.
It was the failure of the smart card devices to read the biometric
data of voters who turned up to perform their civic duties at
various polling stations across the country in the March 28, 2015
Presidential election that informed the decision of INEC to deploy
the incident forms.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan was one of those unable to
get accreditation with the electronic device when he turned up at
his Unit 13 polling station in his hometown in Otuoke, Bayelsa
State, to vote.

Despite about four of the devices deployed to ensure that the
former president and his wife were accredited, he still ended up
being accredited manually to vote during the exercise after being
issued the INEC incidence form.

Many have criticized the use of incident forms saying it makes
the process prone to rigging.

The PDP presidential candidate also noted in the statement that
“data from the 2015 elections show that 75% of the almost 14
million people who voted without biometric accreditation in 2015,
were linked to President Muhammadu Buhari.”

Mr Abubakar is President Buhari’s main challengers in the
presidential election slated for February 16.