Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru Jega has technically ruled out electronic voting in the 2015 elections. He said permanent voter cards would soon be distributed. He also hinted of a restructuring of the operations of the election umpire. Jega rated the conduct of Edo State governorship election very high and promised fairness in the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State. He also spoke on a wide range of issues in this interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)  
Permanent voter’s card coming soon  
“As you know we did biometric data registration; before the end of this year, we will start issuing the permanent voter cards and these permanent cards that we are going to issue are chip-based, just like many of our own bank cards.
“So they carry all the information on a microchip which is embedded in the card of the voter.
“So what we believe we can achieve at the minimum by 2015, is that we can achieve 100 per cent authentication at the polling units.’’
“If a voter comes to the polling unit and brings out his or her card, we will be able to determine 100 per cent whether he is the legitimate holder of the card.
“So the issues of people using other people’s cards to go and vote; the issues of stealing cards or even buying cards will be squarely dealt with and that, we believe we can achieve, God willing by 2015.
“We already have all the data in our database; we are now going to issue the permanent voter cards; all we need to do between now and 2015 is to buy what I call card readers in which we will store all the information,’’ Jega said.
The INEC chair explained further that card readers would be available in all the polling units to ascertain the legitimacy of the holder.
Jega also said that the process of identifying valid owners of the card would go a long way in terms of improving the credibility and the transparency of the electoral process.
Electronic voting in 2015
“Technically, there is no proposal by INEC that it should be adopted in 2015.
“Right now, if we are to introduce electronic voting in this country, we have to do a lot of piloting.
“We have to do a lot of sampling of existing machines right now, because of that prohibition, we can’t even attempt to do it.
“Now, if that is done in good time, and we are able to explore the possibility and it seems feasible, then obviously at that time we will tell Nigerians that it is feasible, and then maybe we should try it.
“But right now, we haven’t gotten to that stage; right now what we want is the removal of a major hindrance for INEC to even begin to explore the possibility of electronic voting.
“But what INEC is trying to do and then we are really again improving the use of technology in elections is that as you know we did biometric data registration.’’
http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/news/57451-electronic-voting-not-likely-in-2015-says-jega.html