BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, Deputy Political Editor & DAPO AKINREFON
LAGOS—THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was on the hot spot, weekend, as fury raged among opposition political parties after the commission confirmed that it would discard the N40 billion Direct Data Capture, DDC, machines during the forthcoming election.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in a sharp reaction said the decision to use a manual register was to help the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, rig the election across the country.

The commission is, however, insistent in its course saying that there is no provision of the Electoral Law that compels it to use the DDC machines during the elections.

Spokesman of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, presidential candidate, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, faulted INEC for refusing to adopt the Open Secret Ballot System which he said would have totally eliminated rigging while at the same time saving the country the billions spent on the DDC machines.

Civil rights activist and Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, PLAC, Mr. Clement Nwankwo, however, defended the commission saying that there was no provision in the Electoral Act compelling INEC to use the electronic machines during voting.

The ACN, yesterday, said it had uncovered a plan by INEC to discard the DDC machines during the forthcoming elections.

The party in the statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, warned that using a manual voter’s register would make it possible for those who had either engaged in multiple registration or purchased voter’s cards to rig the elections.

The party said apart from “ruining the polls, since whoever possesses a voter’s card can vote anywhere and several times, the use of a manual register will also mean that the millions of dollars spent on the electronic voter registration have gone down the drain.”

The INEC spent about N94.3 billion to register 65.2 million voters in the last voters’ registration exercise amounting to $10 dollars or N1446.32 per voter.

Compared with other democracies, spending about $10 to register a voter is high. The cost of similar exercises in Bangladesh, India, and Ghana is less than half of Nigeria’s. The Bangladesh Elections Commission compiled an 80 million voters’ register, using biometric face and fingerprint technology at a total cost of $65 million (N9.75 billion), amounting to a per voter cost of N121.88.

India, with a voting population of 714 million, completed its voters’ registration exercise at $0.56 per voter. With a voter population of 12.8 million, Ghana conducted its 2008 elections at the cost of $40 million, which amounts to $3 per voter.

Nigeria can only take solace in Malaysia, which spent RM2.23 million or $6.68 million to register 161,148 new voters in 1999 at the rate of $41.44 per vote.

However, Malaysia has a better economy and her people are better off than Nigerians in terms of income per capita.

Dangers in using manual register
Explaining how a manual register may be used by INEC, the party said if the electoral body failed to use the same DDC machines used to register voters at the various polling stations where they were used for the registration, it would be impossible to verify the fingerprints of each voter, hence he/she can vote as many times as possible.

Mohammed said: ‘’The voter registration exercise was designed to ensure that only qualified voters would register and vote. The fingerprints captured during registration are stored in the system of each DDC machine, since there is no central data base as we have said in earlier statements.

‘’On election day, the fingerprints of each voter are to be taken again and compared with what has been stored in the computer. If the record is found, the person is considered authentic and should be allowed to vote. Once he/she has voted, the record will be updated to reflect that, and that person should not be allowed to vote again in the same election.

‘’It is, therefore, absolutely important that the computer used during registration, which now contains the records of all voters registered at a particular polling station, must be brought back to the same polling unit on voting day to be used in the verification as indicated above.

If the computer is not brought back and used to verify and authenticate each voter, only the manual register would be used, even though the people will be made to believe the system is foolproof since they will still be fingerprinted anyway.’’

ACN warned that nothing short of the electronic voter’s register, backed by the same system used for the registration exercise to allow the authentication of voters, would be accepted during the April polls.

The party said the need to authenticate would_be voters at the various polling units has been made more urgent by the fact that the so_called AFIS software to detect double/multiple registration has been shown not to be foolproof due to the human factor.

No legal backing for e-voting – INEC
Countering, Mr. Kayode Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the electoral commission did not say it would use the DDC machines and assured that what was in the manual register was a replica of what is in the DDC machines.

His words: “INEC never said it will use the DDC machines for election. The law does not allow INEC to use e-voting for now. There is nothing the commission can do about that. However, what is in the manual register is a replica of what we have in the DDC machine.

The fingerprint on the manual register is the same with the finger print in the DDC machine.”

INEC was backed by PLAC’s Mr. Nwankwo, who told Vanguard: “Those machines are not for voting, they are for registration of voters, they are not configured for voting, they are to obtain and store data.”

Buhari’s spokesman, Mr. Odumakin also faulting the INEC plans said “we believe we can overcome all these problems if the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had done what we asked them to do from the beginning and that is the Modified Open Secret Ballot System.

“This was the same system that was adopted during the June 12, 1993 general elections. With that system, there is no way one person can be in two places at the same time.

Accreditation and voting will be done simultaneously throughout the country and as such no one person can vote twice in the same polling booth. That is what we are pushing for. We also urge all other progressives and Nigerians to push for the same thing.”


http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/

Only In Nigeria, so sad this is never enough to rile the citizens into action, you will need to defraud mismanaged nearly $40 billion USD before Nigerians will get off their ars.e and scream enough is enough.

JEGA is a big thief. He should be jailed immediately.

I'm really sorry for this country

But I have been saying these things for months, and I have been accused of bing a doom monger. Boys and girls the stakes are high. All this careless spending, without accountability must stop. This administration has not shown a single ounce of thriftyness, they are spending our money as if there is no tomorrow. It must end with sensible and clever voting, Sorry, Goddy and pack of hyenas must be shown the door.

Yeye leaders

Considering the enormous amount of money spent on purchasing DDC machin and now that Jega is contemplating to dumb it, i cry for my dear country

Until Nigerians rise up and say "Enough is Enough" these looters will continue to take us for a ride and subject the whole country to ridicule

Hmmmmm gettin' rid of anything that will prevent rigging and electoral fraud!

This jega is a criminal ooooo! Kai. This is wasteful, so much for free and fair elections. See the man has wasted money 4 nothing o. A disgrace, na credible voters register we go chop? We need free and fair elections

What s wrong wit our leaders? Do dey tnk we ar fools? Jega n hs advisers ar thieves n shud b jaild. Since mumu jega knw d ddc machin wont work, y did he adopt it? We nd 2fight dese useless politicians if we must experience change. God help u.

What s wrong wit our leaders? Do dey tnk we ar fools? Jega n hs advisers ar thieves n shud b jaild. Since mumu jega knw d ddc machin wont work, y did he adopt it? We nd 2fight dese useless politicians if we must experience change. God help u.

No wonder GEJ say nobody should rig the election for him, Nigeria ppl no go ever change,

ngerians are the most complacent people on heart, suffering and laughing, when are we going to say enough is enough we are getting screwed by our government daily, are we just plain stupid or what pls someone help me understand, i am asking my self same question.

please we need to start demanding a change, forget egypt and tunisia, can we organize a protest??

engineerd:

please we need to start demanding a change, forget egypt and tunisia, can we organize a protest??

Bros, You are on your own. I wan go heaven, but l nor wan die

@OP,

Aren't the machines re-usable or can't they be repurposed for maybe the next census or something? I weep for this country. At least, we can sell them to DR Congo or Egypt when they hold their elections soon. This is a really really messed up country.

SMH, feeling sorry for Nigeria, there are still pot holes_{the size swimming pools} on our roads, no electricity, our police force is full of semi-illiterates, poverty is on d rise everyday, etc and one man would wake-up one day and throw away N94 Billion Naira of Tax payers money and have the guts to still defend himself? just F***kng 2 bad.

His words: “INEC never said it will use the DDC machines for election. [b]The law does not allow INEC to use e-voting for now. [/b]There is nothing the commission can do about that. However, what is in the manual register is a replica of what we have in the DDC machine.

The law does not? Anyone have any idea what law is being referred to here?

Phony200:

@OP,

Aren't the machines re-usable or can't they be re-purposed for maybe the next census or something? I weep for this country. At least, we can sell them to DR Congo or Egypt when they hold their elections soon. This is a really really messed up country.

Chairman Stop that Dangerous Joke ooh   Anti-Terrorism Bill is in effect and what you said may be construed as national sabotage converted to terrorism and the penalty is Death.   Census requires a AI-DDC+DR (Artificial Intelligence Digital Data Capture + Duplicate Recognition) Machine. Trying to re-purpose them for Census is asking for further Embezzlement. Remember when Dora re-purposed NTA Digital Broadcasting Trucks for $8 billion Naira rather than buying new ones for $6 billion   The trucks are starting to rot in the same place they were parked and this Incompetent (asides her NAFDAC days) plum will become a Senator of the Federal Republic come April 2011 insha Allah  

Jega's right try as we may to wish it away but the constitutional loophole for rigging vie the manual voting has always been there. The legislative arm for their convenience have shied away from plugging it. The blame rest mainly on the legthieveslator.

^^^^ What constitutional loophole?

Kobojunkie:

^^^^ What constitutional loophole?

e voting is not constitutional yet.

pls let them throw away those useless things they call machine. how can a computerised system not know when one man registers 50 times? that is a whole bullshit. let them do whatever they like but we want Buhari and bakare delievered for us. enough of these pdp criminals.
no matter what jega does, he must remember that if pdp wins, we will be on the streets.
shameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee to pdp and their ocultic manourvers. criminals in power. obasanjo and abiola - international thief thief.

I'm ready to hit the streets now, but i'm just waiting for sham results to be announced first.

P.S.

The fingerprints captured during
registration are stored in the system of
each DDC machine, since there is no central
data base as we have said in earlier
statements.

What the hell!!?

lekyar:


e voting is not constitutional yet.

Ok  . . . wait  . . . what part of our constitution declares it unconstitutional? I am trying to understand what you mean by the above.

Una never see anything. This whole sham was long predicted, but Goddy's nyash lickers would not let any hear word. Nigerians have been duped again, Advance Fee Fraud?

Kobojunkie:

Ok  . . . wait  . . . what part of our constitution declares it unconstitutional? I am trying to understand what you mean by the above.

Got to brush up on the constitution. But always been the argument advanced for not going electronic.

lekyar:

Got to brush up on the constitution. But always been the argument advanced for not going electronic.

I have heard it before myself but never really discovered what those who make the claim even mean. Electronic voting, IMO, is simply another way of gathering and counting votes. Not certain in what particular way our constitution declares this method unacceptable.

Kobojunkie:

I have heard it before myself but never really discovered what those who make the claim even mean. Electronic voting, IMO, is simply another way of gathering and counting votes. Not certain in what particular way our constitution declares this method unacceptable.

Agreed, that's why the legthieveslators should hold it as a priority to make it as unambiguous as possible.

I don't understand all these arguments.
Which country uses DDC machines during election?

It took us weeks to register voters for the forthcoming election, so during the election proper, Nigeria will be shut down for weeks for us to cast our votes?

Nonsense!

lekyar:

Agreed, that's why the legthieveslators should hold it as a priority to make it as unambiguous as possible.

I would like to say the legislators are at fault but what of INEC?