Governor Nasir el-Rufai has expressed confidence in the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in the ongoing local government election in Kaduna state.
The governor said the outcome of the poll should be acceptable by all the parties as it is nearly impossible to rig it.
He said this after casting his vote at polling unit 01 Ungwan Sarki Kaduna.
The Governor stated that the electronic voting machine used in the election was an improvement over the one used in the 2018 local government elections, where multiple voting were experienced.
He however expressed dismay over the low turn out of electorate in the elections, attributing it to late arrival of electoral materials.
“The improved voting machine we now have makes it nearly impossible to do multiple voting which happened a lot in the 2018 election; you activate the voting machine with your card, once you come and you are accredited, once you are sure this is your polling unit, you go to the voting machine and place your voters card, it opens the machine for you and you vote.
“The whole process takes less than 15secs. It is very fast, very efficient and you will see your ballot paper being printed. So that the ballot paper can be counted. The machine also transmits the result at the end of the voting to a server and a backup on a USP, as well as printed copies for all the parties and security agents. So it is very difficult to alter anything.
“We are not going to behave like other parties or other state government of the ruling party. We will allow the people of Kaduna state to elect who they want. We do not have to win everywhere, though we have worked for the people of Kaduna state, they have seen our footprint everywhere and we are confident that all reasonable minded people will vote for our party, our candidate because they know we are committed to the welfare of the people.
“We don’t believe in cheating, in rigging election, but also we don’t believe that others should cheat us. That is why we encouraged SIECOM to come up with a very improved system and i’m impressed with the whole thing. Technology is key to minimising cheating in election, unless we have credible election we can never have good, accountable leaders. That is why we are committed, even if it means we are going to lose in some areas, this is democracy, it is a gradual process,” he said.
Speaking on the same vein, Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, Hon. Yusuf Zailani, alleged that PDP is used to rigging and such will not like the electronic voting system introduced by the Governor el-Rufai’s administration because it does not give room for any form of manipulation.
He however expressed confidence that the APC will win the poll, as the people of the state are appreciative of the giant strides of Governor el-Rufai, especially the urban renewal projects.
Speaking on the outcome of the election Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Publicity Secretary, Albera Catoh, and Dr AbdulRahman Usman in a joint media briefing said the EVM has been compromised and the local government elections results predetermined to APC’s advantage.
“The integrity of the results have been compromised. PDP went into this election against Sielcom, the APC and Governor Nasir el-Rufai. There was a ward in Barnawa (Kaduna South local government area) where the result printed as at 10am this morning (Saturday) reads 182 for APC and 18 for PDP, giving all other parties zero.
“The machine were functioning well but despite our warnings and cries ahead of the elections, the results have been programmed to give APC advantage over other political parties. There is no way we would accept the result of such electoral process that has been rigged to favour the ruling party.
“In Igabi local government, seven persons were shot, as there were efforts to cart away electoral materials. How can we get free, fair election in such a situation,” the PDP stalwarts said.