• Announces Readiness for Anambra Governorship Election.

• Declares “No Electronic Authentication, No Voting” in Anambra.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is still hopeful that the National Assembly would give its nod to electronic transmission of election results whenever it reconvenes to harmonise the two versions of the Electoral Act amendment bill passed by its two chambers.

Barrister Festus Okoye, INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education expressed this optimism while answering questions in a television interview. According to him “INEC is optimistic that when the harmonization committee is constituted, members of the National Assembly will still revisit the issue of electronic transmission of election results and okay it”

Explaining further, he said deepening our election with the use of technology is part of the vision of the present leadership of INEC and endorsing the transmission of election results is a right step in this direction.

To further demonstrate its readiness to continue with electoral reforms using technology, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu told a gathering of all registered political parties at its third quarterly meeting in Abuja on Monday that the Z-pad, which has been integrated into the IVED will be used in the Anambra governorship election holding in November. The device which is currently being used for voter registration, will help tackle the fear of identity theft during elections

Professor Yakubu further declared a “no electronic authentication, no voting” stance before the political parties in attendance. Before the introduction of the Z-pad, the commission permitted the use of incident form to cover those whose fingerprints could not be authenticated by the Smart Card Reader (SCR).

He went further: “On election day, the same device will be used for the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for fingerprint authentication during accreditation and where it fails for facial authentication.

“We believe that this multi-layer process will eliminate the possibility of voting by identity theft using another person’s PVC. Where the voter fails both the fingerprint and facial authentication, he/she will not be allowed to vote; in other words, no electronic authentication, no voting”.

Z-Pad device is INEC’s innovation at ensuring a seamless election and it entails the use of a result capturing device, which enables the electoral body to upload results from the polling units directly to its website, right on the spot of sorting and counting of ballots.

The technology eliminates the age-long threat of hoodlums highjacking election results on the way to either the ward or LGA collation centre. The idea of Z-Pad is to ensure that the entire voting population and the general public can monitor the progress of results collation from the comfort of their homes.

The technology was used in the last governorship elections in both Edo and Ondo states.

“We are convinced that the new machine is robust enough to further guarantee the credibility of voter authentication and transparent management of results during elections.”

Professor Yakubu said the commission would carry out a pilot exercise using the new device in Delta State during the Isoko South 1 State Assembly constituency bye-election holding on Saturday after which it would be deployed in the November 6 governorship poll in Anambra State.

The INEC chairman also announced the suspension of physical registration of voters in Anambra State, a move he said is in compliance with Section 9(5) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) which mandates 60 days gap interval between such an exercise and an election day.

He said INEC will use the next few weeks to compile the register of voters for claims and objections, clean up the data, print the Permanent Voter Cards PVCs for collection by registrants and compile the register for each of the 5,720 polling units in the State.

“I want to assure every newly registered voter in Anambra State, including those who applied to transfer from within and outside the State or for the replacement of damaged or lost PVCs that their cards will be printed and made available to them for collection before the election. Each political party fielding candidates in the election will be given a copy of the voters’ register on 7th October 2021 as published in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the elections”, he stated.