Edo Guber Race: Parties worried over legality of the use of Card Reader

Following the pronouncement made by the Supreme Court that the Electoral Act does not capture the use of Smart Card Readers for the conduct of elections in the country, the Forum of Registered Political Parties (FRPP) in Edo State has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare if card readers will be used in the 2016 governorship election in the state or not.
The FRPP expressed worry over the position of the Supreme Court on card readers, noting that jettisoning card readers would return the country to manual voting with its attendant vices such as ballot box snatching/stuffing, multiple thumbprints, over-voting and outright falsification of election results.
Speaking with journalists in Benin yesterday, chairman of the FRPP and the state chairman of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Comrade Ogba Victor, called on the National Assembly to as a matter of urgency amend the Electoral Act so to ensure that the deployment and use of the Smart Card Readers were inserted in the Act and the Nigerian Constitution.“We frown seriously at any conscious or unconscious attempt to revert Nigeria back to yester years of sorrow, anguish, maiming, arson, killing, impunity and imposition of political gladiators facilitated by the non-usage on Smart Card Readers on the Nigerian citizenry," Comrade Ogba stated.
He noted with dismay a fast emerging tendency whereby some politicians try to hijack the structures of some political parties so as to use them further their political aspirations, citing the example of an attempt by some individuals to hijack the structure of the state chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).The group also expressed dissatisfaction at the spate of illegality being exhibited by some governorship aspirants in apparent contravention of the Electoral Act by displaying campaign messages on billboards as well as in the electronic media when the time was not yet ripe for such.
On the 2016 governorship election in Edo State, the group said that only a development-inclined and political driven candidate should be elected to govern the state, adding that such a candidate must go through credible sets of elections conducted at the level of political party primaries and the general election devoid of rancor and electoral fraud.



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