INEC free to transmit Anambra poll electronically, says Senate panel

Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kabiru Gaya, has said the electoral body is free to transmit the November 6 Anambra State governorship election result electronically, if it so desires.

Gaya said this yesterday while addressing reporters after the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters and INEC met with stakeholders on the governorship poll in Anambra State.

Asked if INEC could transmit results of the election electronically, Gaya said: “It is left for INEC to decide whether it will transfer the election results in Anambra or not. They have done that in the previous elections in Edo and Ondo states.”

He added: “Even before the INEC started transmitting elections results from polling units, Nigerians have been monitoring results of elections the moments they are being announced at polling stations. By 4 p.m, even before the final results are announced, many Nigerians would have seen them on the internet. Nigerians are fully involved in elections.”

The Kano South senator said INEC assured the joint committee that it would go ahead with the Anambra poll and declare the winner, despite the prevailing security situation in the state.

“We expect the people of the state to cooperate fully with the electoral body by being law-abiding.

“The only way to achieve free, fair and credible election in Anambra is for everybody to eschew violence,” he said.

INEC National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the agency had recovered from the series of attacks by yet-to-be-identified persons in Anambra State.

“We have recovered from the series of attacks on our facilities. I am happy to say that we have deployed all the non-sensitive materials to all the local government areas. We have trained the requisite number of ad hoc workers for the election and we have also mobilised members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) for efficient distribution of materials on Election Day. As far as INEC is concerned, we are good to go on November 6, 2021.”

On the level of distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in Anambra State, he INEC Chairman said: “We have a little over 81,000 valid registrants. After the suspension of the CVR (Continuous Voter Registration) in Anambra State, that includes a little over 5,000 that applied for replacement of cards and intra-state and inter-state transfers.

“As we speak, we are batching the cards. They will leave first thing tomorrow morning (today) for Awka (the state capital) and all the new registrants will get their cards before the elections.

“This time round with the help of technology, we were able to harvest the telephone numbers and email addresses of the registrants.

“So, we will contact each and every one of them and tell them where to pick their cards. But the cards will be delivered to Awka tomorrow.”

Prof. Yakubu added that INEC would make announcements in the media to ensure that those without telephones and emails could collect their cards at the ward level.

(Courtesy The Nation)