APC flays poor continuous voters registration in Ekiti

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has expressed serious worries over some noticeable but avoidable defects and deficiencies in the handling of the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration exercise in the state.
A statement by the Director of Publicity and Media of the party in the state, Segun Dipe, described the exercise as shoddy, tardy and a deliberate attempt at disenfranchising the enthusiastic people of Ekiti State from participating in the June 21 governorship election.
Dipe observed that the defects and deficiencies observed in the handling of the registration exercise in most of the designated centres showed either lack of adequate preparation on the side of the Independent National Electoral Commission or deliberate attempts to shortchange the people.
The party said: “It is not about crying wolf where there is none.
“It is about the facts on ground.
“Some of the noticeable, yet avoidable deficiencies and defects in the exercise include poor preparation for the exercise by INEC, use of obsolete or faulty systems, inadequacy of staff and materials, among others.
“This runs contrary to INEC’s promise to begin to get it right with the Ekiti election, and if the morning shows the day, then, it is not yet Uhuru for INEC.
“This is not about one party, it is about a people who want INEC to conduct credible election for them to have a democratically elected governor in the saddle. It is about a people who do not want to relive their past experience. And it is about a people who do not want to be shortchanged by anyone. They deserve to be duly registered without hiccups. They should be encouraged, not discouraged.”
The APC said the use of faulty or obsolete systems was noticed right from the first day of the exercise in some of the designated centres, where data collected could not be stored in the systems and thus got wiped off immediately.
The party said it is therefore possible that those whose registration have been concluded and issued the temporary cards may still have their names missing from INEC’s list, adding: “This is likened to the Anambra experience where the names of those that began with alphabets O-Z could not be found.
“Another show of shame is the noticeable skill deficiency displayed by the so called INEC officials. We observed that they most times fidget with the equipments without readily knowing what to press or how to manipulate them and even vent their frustration on the innocent citizens. Most times, they would ask impending registrants to wait for hours before they could be registered, if at all. The result of such endless wait is impatience and agitation.
“We also observed that in some wards constituted by more than one town, such as Eka Meta and Eka Marun, the residents of other towns would need to travel to such designated towns only to return with disappointments, when asked to come another day due to lapses on the part of the officials. This is quite frustrating, especially when such people don’t have enough resources to transport themselves to and fro on needless number of times that it will take INEC to get it right.
“Last week’s collection of permanent voters card registration exercise did not fair any better. We had complained about the time allotted to the exercise and INEC said it would look at it and make it a continuous one, urging those who could not make it to the polling unity within the stipulated time to come to INEC secretariats located in the different local governments. Our people who went could only meet empty offices as there were no INEC staff on ground to attend to them. Meaning that those affected have yet to collect their permanent voters’ card even up till now.
“The morning shows the day and a stitch in time saves nine. The time for INEC to get it right is now. We do not want to wait till the election time when such technical rigging must have been committed, like it was the case with Anambra where INEC could only express regrets over what it termed logistical problem after the election had been shabbily conducted.
“If indeed INEC wants the best to happen in Ekiti state as vowed, then the commission must rise up to its challenges and correct all the anomalies as they come. INEC must perfect the system before the election proper, after all, its chairman, Professor Jega has promised that the commission under him will take constructive criticisms and effect correction when and where necessary.”