Card readers not same as electronic voting – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission National Commissioner in charge of Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti States, Prof Lai Olurode, has said the smart card readers to be used for accreditation in the 2015 general elections is not synonymous with electronic voting.
Olorode said the basic function of the device is to verify the Permanent Voter Cards and authenticate the claims of prospective voters.
Speaking at a meeting with the management staff of the commission in Ekiti State, led by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Sam Olumekun, Olorode dismissed the fear that the device is synonymous with electronic voting, which he said contravenes the provision of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
He said: “This device is meant to add credibility to our polls.
“It has two functions to discharge and that is to verify the PVC as being authentic or fake and to authenticate whether the voter that brings it is the actual owner because we won’t tolerate the use of cloned cards in this election.
“Smart card reader is not synonymous with electronic voting in any way.
“We have to make it clear that accreditation will be done on the voter register after your cards have been certified to be authentic and that is where voting starts.
“And we are assuring you that whoever that gets accredited will certainly vote because there is no time limit to voting now.
“Voting will only stop when the last person on the queue votes, but there is limit to accreditation.”
Olorode urged the staff of the commission to commence on a house-to-house sensitization campaign to shore up people’s awareness to the collection of the PVCs and the placement of the ballot papers.
The INEC Chief urged the staff to shun money bags whose intention is to buy them over and compromise the electoral process during the election to safeguard their careers and the integrity of the electoral body.
Olurode said INEC staff owed it a duty to improve on the landmark recorded during the June 21, 2014 governorship election that was adjudged the best in recent time.
He said: “I want to let you know that you have a career to build here and these moneybag politicians will never hesitate to destroy you.
“So, we are going to improve on the welfare package that won’t make you to look into the pockets of these dangerous people.
“By now, we expect you to be working with political parties on how the voters can place the presidential and the National Assembly ballot papers.
“The red box is for the presidential, while the black is for the National Assembly because any wrong placement will be counted as invalid votes.”