The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Edo state chapter has urged the National Assembly to legalise the use of card readers in elections in the country.

The party made the urge through its state Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Nehikhare, Thursday in Benin said this was against the backdrop of the party’s preparation for the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled the governorship election in the state for Sept. 19.

Nehikhare said that to ensure a free, fair, transparent and credible election in the state, the senate must amend the electoral act and send same to Mr President for accent.

He added that if the other issues included in the electoral bill were causing obstruction, there was need to remove them and just ask for legal backing for the card reader.

“This must be done in readiness for Edo 2020, as failure to make this amendment confers a toga of rigged and compromised election.

“The card reader is the most important device in our electoral process that can definitely define and eliminate over-voting.

“It eliminates the abuse of writing fake and self-written results. Is it so hard to understand that if votes declared exceed number of people accredited, that something must be fishy? If you accredit 152 people, only a maximum of 152 persons can vote.

“So it’s on the basis of this that the Edo PDP is calling for the legalisation of the card reader ahead of the Edo governorship election.

 “In PDP we prepare for elections by campaigning, mobilizing and sensitizing electorates to support and vote for our candidates.

 “We believe that the number of votes cast cannot and must not exceed number of accredited voters. We, therefore, implore the ruling party, APC, to join in this demand,” Nehikhare said.