A
abujagirl
Guest
Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday said that ballot box snatching will be impossible in 2015 as political parties that indulged in ballot box snatching during elections would render their votes invalid as the new system of digitalized electoral procedure has made it impossible for carrying ballot box from one polling station to another.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of a retreat organised by INEC for Resident Electoral Commissioners and other top management staff in Kaduna, Jega said,"the new system of digitalized electoral procedure has made it impossible from carrying ballot box from one polling station to another, because henceforth every polling booth will have a specialised digital number and all voting cards for that particular station will carry the digital number.
"When you register in poll booth ‘A’, your registration number is one, everybody that registered there will carry number one, which means that polling unit is ‘A1’. If your polling unit is ‘B’ you have ‘B1/1-500’. If your voting card is registered under ‘B’ unit and it finds its way into ‘A’ unit box, that vote automatically becomes invalid.
Jega concluded by saying, "It pays for people contesting election to ensure that they play by the rules of the game, because when you snatch box from one polling unit to another, you stand the chance of losing the votes count as they will all be declared invalid. With this new system and other initiatives put in place by the commission, 2015 will witness a hitch-free election, even though I cannot assure you of absolute perfection as we are learning day-by-day.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of a retreat organised by INEC for Resident Electoral Commissioners and other top management staff in Kaduna, Jega said,"the new system of digitalized electoral procedure has made it impossible from carrying ballot box from one polling station to another, because henceforth every polling booth will have a specialised digital number and all voting cards for that particular station will carry the digital number.
"When you register in poll booth ‘A’, your registration number is one, everybody that registered there will carry number one, which means that polling unit is ‘A1’. If your polling unit is ‘B’ you have ‘B1/1-500’. If your voting card is registered under ‘B’ unit and it finds its way into ‘A’ unit box, that vote automatically becomes invalid.
Jega concluded by saying, "It pays for people contesting election to ensure that they play by the rules of the game, because when you snatch box from one polling unit to another, you stand the chance of losing the votes count as they will all be declared invalid. With this new system and other initiatives put in place by the commission, 2015 will witness a hitch-free election, even though I cannot assure you of absolute perfection as we are learning day-by-day.
