By Our Correspondent
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Gombe state has said that it had resolved to distribute ballot papers to presiding officers based on the number of permanent voter cards (PVCs) and not on the number of registered voters for Saturday’s polls.
This was contained in a press statement issued in Gombe yesterday.
The statement said: “This is an effort to improve credibility of election results as well as avoid any possibility of manipulation or rigging during the electoral process. The commission is prepared, for the avoidance of doubt, to cancel any election result whose votes are more than the number of PVCs distributed in the polling units.”
It added that the commission had already reviewed the operation of card readers during the next elections and had taken measures to ensure proper accreditation of PVCs, emphasising that no manual accreditation would take place at the polls.
“INEC, therefore, notifies the public that card readers will be used for the April 11, 2015 elections and it will enforce the provisions of the guidelines which reschedules elections to the next day should a card reader fails and cannot be replaced by the commission within the specified time frame.”
Similarly, Gombe state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Barrister Kashim Gaidam, has urged political parties to maintain restrain and conduct themselves according to the provision of the Electoral Act, particularly as they prepare for the next elections.
According to him, INEC, on its part, would ensure level playing grounds for all political parties in other to achieve free and fair elections.
He emphasised the need for the people to give maximum cooperation to security agencies by giving the information in other to ensure adequate security during elections.
Gaidam also used the occasion to sympathise with the families electoral officers who lost their lives in the line of duty during the March 28 elections when members of the Boko Haram sect attacked the state.