Jega reveals procedure for voting, release of election results

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Tuesday
released the processes and procedures for the
elections as well as the processes of releasing the
results during the polls by the presiding officers.
Speaking at a stakeholders' summit with political
parties, Jega informed those present that accreditation
of voters would take place from 8a.m. till the last
person to join the queue at 1p.m. is accredited, while
voting would commence at 1.30p.m. and would end
when the last person on the queue has voted.
The INEC chairman further said only persons with the
permanent voters' cards (PVCs) would be accredited,
stating that the card readers would be used during the
accreditation process.
He said each political party is entitled to an agent at
the polling station and that the agent must be properly
accredited in accordance with the regulations and
guidelines.
According to Jega, "On March 28, three ballot boxes will
be used in each of the polling/voting points. Ballot
boxes with red cover is for putting a thumb printing
ballot paper by a voter for the presidential election,
ballot box with a black cover is putting thumb printing
ballot paper by a voter for the senatorial election and
the green ballot box is for putting thumb printed ballot
paper by a voter for the House of Representatives.
"Each ballot paper has corresponding colour stripes to
assist voters in putting the right ballot paper in the right
ballot box. For each polling /voting point, there is a
designated official called overseer, whose primary job is
to ensure that voters put the right ballot paper into the
right ballot box. Political parties need to factor this into
their campaigns to minimise putting the ballot paper
into the wrong ballot box."
As a result of this, he said there shall be two sorting of
voting at the polling units, explaining that it was meant
to ensure that any wrongly placed ballot papers re
removed and put back into the right ballot boxes and the
second is meant to determine the votes cast by voters
for a political party/candidate.
According to the INEC chairman, "At the end of the
sorting and counting of the ballot papers, the results
are to be announced to the rearing of all and a result
poster is to be completed and pasted at the polling
units. Copies of the result sheets are to be given a
accredited party agents who are present while the
original is to be conveyed to the ward level coalition
centre by the presiding officer accompanied by the
security agents and the party agents.
"At the ward level collation centre, if there are
complaints and/or evidence of alteration of
accreditation figures on the result sheets, the
information on accreditation saved on the card readers
used would be used by the collation officer to decide on
the case."
Jega further explained that hard copies of result sheets
from the polling units would be scanned, converted to
PDF format and put in a database, which be made
accessible for viewing an download via the INEC
website. This, he said, is to ensure the accuracy of the
collated results.
He also used the occasion to assure Nigerians of a
credible, fair and transparent election at all level.

Posted by Unknown on Thursday, 26 March 2015 - Rating: 4.5

Title : Jega reveals procedure for voting, release of election results
Description : The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Tuesday released the processes and procedu...

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