The Independent National Electoral Commission (IÑEC) has assured that it will deploy technology to forestall rigging in subsequent elections in Nigeria.
The election management agency also said they will start with the Anambra State Governorship election to frustrate attempts by Political parties to compromise the election.
The Head of Information and Technology (ICT), INEC, Engr Chukwuemeka Nmaji who stated this during a workshop organised by the electoral body for Journalists in Awka, the Anambra State capital said that they will checkmate all manner of electoral fraud during the exercise.
He said the attendant problems of network for the online transmission of Form EC8A( Result Sheets) online has been resolved by the body, noting that it can be sent and received both on and off line.
He also said the issue of power that affected the card readers in the previous elections has been addressed as the Biometal Voter Accreditation System BVAS has an in-built battery system to last for over six hours with a power bank for every Returning Officer at the polling units.
In the workshop which was meant to explain to newsmen the processes and procedures for 2021 Anambra governoship election Nnaji said that the results sheets would be electronically transfered ,adding that even if it is sent offline it would be recieved online by changing the offline mode .
Nnaji noted that there is a device that would be obtained by electorates which would enable them know the outcome of the election even before the announcement by IÑEC through their Android phones.
“These innovations have been here with us and we have been experimenting this and we first tried it at Isoko Constituency election and it worked more than ninety percent and that is what we are going to apply in Anambra state governoship election” he said.
In his remark earlier the Resident Electoral Commissioner Dr Nkwachukwu Orji who was represented by Dr Victor Aluko said that a total of 2,525 million voters would take part in the exercise adding that a total of 77,475 newly registered voters were added to the register of voters in the State .
He added that process of accreditation does not only include tomb printing but also facial accreditation of voters as well as facial accreditation of party agents to avert rigging.
He however regretted that the only obstacle is the issue of vote buying by Political parties and their agents.
The INEC officials however failed to explain how to avert human factor in the use of the machines since voting is manual not electronically.
