LESS than 72 hours to the take-off of the general election, there was a sharp disagreement between the Inspector General of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba
and the leadership of the registered political parties over the procedures for voting and announcement of the election results.
There was also disagreement over deployment of military personnel for the polls.
This came to the fore on Tuesday, at a national summit for the elections, organised for stakeholders by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead the Saturday’s polls.
While the police boss directed eligible voters to cast their votes and leave the polling stations, leaders of the registered political parties openly kicked against the directive, saying that there was no law forbidding the electorate from staying back at the polling centres after casting their votes.
This came as the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, released the procedures for the elections, as well as the processes of releasing the results by presiding officers of the commission
Speaking at the event attended by various stakeholders, the police boss had said it was better for eligible voters to cast their votes and leave the polling stations immediately, saying that the electorate “stands the chances of committing electoral offences as contained in Section 129 of the Electoral Act.”
According to him, “if you stay, there is the likelihood that you may commit of the electoral laws. The law says that you should stay 300 metres away from the polling booths.
“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 8.00 a.m. Please respect that. Also, accept the outcome of the election. If there is any objection, go to the tribunal, and don’t take extrajudicial protests, as it would be not be allowed.”
Leaders of the political parties at the meeting, however, disagreed with him, stating that there was no law that forbade voters staying at the polling stations to monitor the outcome of their votes.
Political parties that kicked against the directive are the Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Independent Democrats (ID), National Conscience Party (NCP), Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), among others.
They also kicked against the deployment of the military to monitor the election and wondered why the Federal Government would not obey the court order that stopped the deployment of the military.
After their protests, the Inspector General of Police again mounted the podium and assured that the military personnel would not be deployed to conduct polls.
According to Abba, “the military would not be deployed in the polling stations. Police and other enforcement agencies are constitutionally empowered to maintain peace at the polling stations.
“Military would be invited when the police cannot maintain peace at the polling stations. They would support the civil authority when the need arises.
“I advise that you cast your votes and go. It is advisory and I so advise.”
He explained that there would be three policemen each at the over 150,000 polling stations across the country.
Speaking earlier, the INEC chairman had said accreditation of voters would take place from 8.00 a.m. till the last person to join the queue at 1.00 p.m. is accredited, while voting would commence at 1.30 p.m. and ends when the last person on the queue has voted.
The INEC chairman further said only persons with the permanent voter card (PVC) would be accredited, stating that the smart card readers would be used during the accreditation process.
He said each political party would be entitled to an agent at the polling station and the agent must be properly accredited in accordance with the regulations and guidelines.
According to Jega, “on March 28, three ballot boxes will be used in each of the polling/voting points. Ballot boxes with red cover is for presidential election; ballot box with a black cover is for the senatorial election and that with green ballot box is for the House of Representatives.
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“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,” Jega said.
The INEC chairman added that there would sorting of voting in the polling units and voting point, adding that it was to ensure that any wrongly placed ballot paper was removed and put back into the right ballot box.
The second, he said, was to determine votes cast by voters to a political party/candidate.
According to the INEC chairman, “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, he said, would be given to accredited party agents present, while the original would be conveyed to the ward level collation centre by the presiding officer, accompanied by security agents and party agents”.
“At the ward level collation 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,” he explained.
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 would be made accessible for viewing and download through the INEC website.
This, he said, was to ensure the accuracy of the collated results at all the centres. (Nigerian Tribune)