60m permanent voters’ cards ready –INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday that 60 million out of 73.5 million permanent voters’ cards are ready and would be distributed before the 2015 general elections.

Chairman of publicity at the commission, Dr Chris Iyimoga, who disclosed this in Lagos during a session with the media said voters’ cards for Ekiti and Osun States whose governorship elections have been scheduled for September and June this year respectively will be distributed between March 5th and 7th.

He said the biometric capturing in 2011 helped the commission to eliminate multiple registrations from the system.

“We have also scheduled continuous voters’ registration exercise for Ekiti and Osun State. The permanent voters’ registers are ready now. After the 2011 elections, we learnt some lessons. We also need to consolidate on the gains we made and we have developed a process that will help us. The biometric capturing that we did in 2011 assisted us in ensuring that multiple registrations are eliminated and this will enable us to have a dependable register. Without a perfect register, we cannot have a credible election that was why we tried very hard to perfect the process”, he said.

He added: “In 2011, the commission would have had a successful election except for the DDC machines because we did not realize that their batteries will not last beyond a certain period. Very soon, we will commence the process for continuous registration nationwide as soon as we have all the gadgets in place”

He said by 2015 election, the commission will put into use the Card Reader in order to eliminate multiple voting.

He further stated that over 200 people are currently being prosecuted by the commission over electoral malpractices and urged the Federal Government to set up a special commission that will deal with prosecution of electoral offenders.

He said except for Bayelsa, Kogi, Edo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun States, elections of president, governors, National Assembly and state Assembly members will hold as scheduled.