By Ladapo Kolade
Tough times await election riggers in the forthcoming local government elections in Lagos State as the state’s independent election commission has opened talks with its counterpart at the federal level on the use of card readers.
The talks focus on the release of card readers to the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission for the July 24 elections to ensure that the election is rig-free.
The card reader is a device that is configured to verify the Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC of each voter on election day. The PVC is presented to the election official by a prospective voter who then inserts it into the machine to confirm that is genuine and contains the standard features of the card.
First used in the March 28, 2015 presidential elections, it is designed to authenticate the cards of a specific polling unit and work only on the specific date of the election.
The card reader also transmits to the election centre’s database the number of voters accredited before voting to combat inflation of figures.
By foiling fraudulent attempts to use fake voters cards and disallow persons from impersonating other voters, the introduction of the card reader has enhanced the transparency of elections thus making the outcome more credible.
It has also aided the resolution of election disputes by enabling the judiciary to obtain facts and figures about the electoral process.
The International Federation of Election Systems said in February 2019 that the Nigerian smart card readers were developed in response to the identified needs of the Independent National Electoral Commission and with support from the United States Agency for International Development and UK aid.
According to Wikipedia, the device uses a cryptographic technology with an ultra-low power consumption and processing frequency of 1.2 GHz and uses Android 4.0.0
The state’s agency is believed to have initiated the talks with the Independent National Electoral Commission in view of the costs that would be incurred if it has to procure its own.
That means it would need to procure not less than 12,131 card readers for the state’s 8,642 polling units and 3,669 voting points.
At an average estimated rate of N40,000 per unit, it would need to cough out N485 million to conduct the council polls.
ECHONEWS reliably gathered that LASIEC’s request to the INEC office in Lagos State has been forwarded to the national secretariat for necessary action and is expected to be favourably considered.
If it scales this hurdle, LASIEC is expected to work more on its logistics to ensure that more voters turn out for the polls.
There are no fewer than 6 million PVC – carrying voters in Lagos State but using the card readers has enabled the election body to discover that few voters turn out to vote.
For instance, LASIEC, in its review of the last local government elections in 2017 admitted that it recorded only 11 percent voter turnout.
