#ANAMBRA DECIDES: Voting ongoing, as INEC extends exercise over failure of devices across state

By OUR REPORTER

Today Saturday 6 November 2021 is the day that all have waited to see in Nigeria amidst artificial insecurity imposed on the South East region, with specific order by terrorist organization, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant wing, Eastern Security Network (ESN), to make the governorship election in Anambra State slated for the day impossible.

Ahead of this day, having discovered the obvious failure of governments of the region to stop the elites backed activities of the criminal group, which had led to the killing of security and other innocent citizens, the Federal Government had moved against the gangs hence the possibility that the ongoing election process has witnessed.

Just 48 hours before the decision day, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide, in a statement by its Director General Strategic Planning and Implementations, Amb. Tony Chiemelu Obizoba, had thanked the Federal Government over its deployment of troops towards security the region especially Anambra State from the criminal group inflicting insecurity on the people.

The ONGAW, however, called for more deployment of personnel to protect Anambra voters who would come out en-masse to vote as, according to the Igbo socio-cultural organisation, it their civic responsibility to do so.

The election today is being conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Nigeria with a view to determining who, among candidates presented for the race by 18 political parties participating will succeed Chief Willie Obiano, who is currently the Governor of the state and whose tenure terminates soon.

The DEFENDER reports that voting is expected to take place across more than 5,000 polling units spread across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state, during which 2.5 million registered voters will exercise their franchise all things being equal.

INEC had said ahead of the election that 5,720 polling units in the state will be available for voting but that there would be no voting in 86 of them because there were no registered voters there.

In the meantime, the INEC has extended voting times in some of the state over failure of electronic devices deployed for smoothness of the electoral exercise.

The Anambra State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Nwachukwu Orji, who announced this in a press statement Saturday afternoon, said the period for opening and closing of poll had been extended from 8.30am to 4.00pm.

“This revised closing time applies to areas where Polling Units opened after the commencement period of 8:30 am.

“In line with existing regulations and guidelines of the Commission, any intending voter who is on the queue by 4:00 pm shall be allowed to vote. All Polling Unit staff must comply with this directive.

“The extension of time arose out of several field reports that voters have had problems with accreditation. The Commission is currently investigating the reason the accreditation devices, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), have worked perfectly in some Polling Units, but not in others.

“In some of the cases, it would seem that this resulted from software glitches. Our technicians have already built an update to the devise software to prevent further challenges. The update is currently being installed in the concerned BVAS and we request voters, candidates, and agents to be patient and allow our technical staff to solve the problem.

“The Commission wishes to reiterate that in cases of sustained malfunction of the BVAS, the Presiding Officer must inform the voters and polling agents that accreditation and voting for the affected Polling Unit shall continue tomorrow or at another time determined by the Commission.

“With this extension of time and the recommencement of accreditation where the BVAS consistently malfunctions, the Commission assures that no voter will be disenfranchised.

“Our deployment has also been adversely affected by transportation challenges in some locations. It must be noted that on account of security concerns, some of the transporters that were mobilized and collected 50% of their sign-on fee backed out at the last moment, leaving some of our ad-hoc staff stranded.

“Also, some of the trained ad-hoc staff backed out at the last moment. The Commission is on top of these challenges and extant regulations and guidelines will be applied on a case-by-case basis.

“Consequently, we are harvesting areas where voting will realistically no longer take place today, including places where substantial disruption has occurred, to enable a possible recommencement of voting at another time, in line with extant laws and the regulations and guidelines of the Commission.

“We appeal to all voters, candidates, stakeholders communities, and political parties to remain calm and law-abiding. We assure you that the Commission is determined to make all votes count,” said REC.