The Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, and leaders of political parties on Tuesday disagreed sharply on what the electorate should do after casting their votes in the forthcoming general elections.
The Inspector-General of Police is insisting on his earlier directive to eligible voters to leave the polling units after casting their votes or risk being charged for loitering at the polling stations in accordance with the Electoral Act, but party leaders contended that there was no such law in existence.
The IGP, the various leaders of political parties made their stands known at the Independent National Electoral Commission Stakeholders Summit held in Abuja.
Abba stated that voters who remain at polling stations after casting their votes are likely to contravene Section 129 of the Electoral Act.
His words: “There is the likelihood that they (the voters) would commit any of the electoral offences in Section 129 of the Electoral Act, especially part of the Electoral Act that concerns loitering.
“The law says that you should stay 300 meters away from the polling stations.
“My advice is that when you cast your vote, don’t stay behind.
“I will do everything necessary to ensure the credibility and protection of the elections.
“There shall be restriction of movements from 8am.
“Please respect the restriction of movement.
“Also accept the outcome of the election.
“If there is any objection, go to the tribunal and don’t take to extra-judicial protests as it would be not be allowed.”
Abbah equally defended the deployment of military personnel to monitor the elections.
He said: “The military would not be deployed at the polling stations.
“Police and other enforcement agencies are constitutionally empowered to maintain peace at the polling stating.
“Military would be invited when the Police cannot maintain peace at the polling stations.
“They would support the civil authority when the need arises.”
Abba explained that there would be three policemen at the 150,000 polling units across the over 120,000 polling stations.
However, party leaders at the meeting argued, stoutly, that no law forbids voters from staying at the polling stations till the results are announced.
They also disagreed with the IGP over the deployment of the military to monitor the election.
Among the party leaders who restated their opposition to the order were the Alliance for Democracy, African Democratic Congress, All Progressives Congress, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Independent Democrats, National Conscience Party and the Peoples Democratic Movement.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, at the event, unfolded the processes and procedures for the elections as well as the processes of releasing the results at polling units.
Jega re-emphasized that Permanent Voter Cards and Smart Card Readers would be used during the accreditation process.
According to him: “On March 28, three ballot boxes will be used in each of the polling/voting points.
“Ballot boxes with red cover is for putting a thumb printed ballot paper by a voter for the presidential election.
“Ballot box with a black cover is putting thumb printed ballot paper by a voter for the senatorial election and the green ballot box is for putting thumb printed ballot paper by a voter for the House of Representatives.
“Each ballot paper has corresponding colour stripes to assist voters in putting the right ballot paper in the right ballot box.
“For each polling/voting point, there is a designated official called overseer, whose primary job is to ensure that voters put the right ballot paper into the right ballot box.
“Political parties need to factor this into their campaigns to minimise putting the ballot paper into the wrong ballot box.”
According to Jega, there shall be two types of sorting of votes in the polling units.
The first sorting is to ensure that any wrongly placed ballot paper is put back into the right ballot box, while the second is to determine votes cast by voters to a political part/candidate.
He added: “At the end of the sorting and counting of the ballot papers, the results are to be announced to the hearing of all and a result poster is to be completed and pasted at the polling units.
“Copies of the result sheets are to be given to accredited party agents who are present, while the original is to be conveyed to the ward level coalition centre by the Presiding Officer accompanied by the security agents and the party agents.
“At the ward level coalition centre, if there are complaints and/or evidence of alteration of accreditation figures on the result sheets, the information on accreditation saved on the Card Readers used would be used by the Collation Officer to decide on the case.”
Jega further explained that hard copies of result sheets from the polling units would be scanned, converted to PDF format and put in a database, which will be made accessible for viewing via the INEC website.
This, he said, is aimed at ensuring the accuracy of the collated results.