The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has pledged commitment towards a near-perfect November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.
Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, Chairman of INEC, stated this at a Workshop For Journalists on Election Processes and Procedures in Awka on Thursday, 14th October, 2021.
Prof. Mahmood, represented by Director of Publicity in the Commission, Mr Victor Aluko, said deployment of the modern technology would go a long way in addressing some challenges experienced in previous elections.
He said the entire process from registration to transmission of results would be fully automated including the use of bimodal which took care of unimodal identification processes which only verified voters by fingerprints.
The INEC Chairman further informed that there were a total of 2,525,471 registered voters in the state after an additional 77,471 generated during the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
He appealed to journalists to assist in disseminating the right information, which he described as very crucial to the success of the election process, adding that sending wrong information could inflame the society.
Contributing, Mr Chukwuemeka Nnaji, Head of Department, ICT, INEC, Awka Office, revealed that the Commission has improved on its system using indigenous team of engineers.
Nnaji pointed out that with the new technology, human interference would greatly be reduced and that data uploaded online would be highly secured from cyber attacks and hackers.
According to him, prospective voters would be identified by various fractures including their faces, affirming that nobody would be able to vote twice as the registration had been cleaned up.
Nnaji asserted that the Commission’s desire to have credible elections remained sacrosanct.
“The need to have one-person-one-vote is what has necessitated the deployment of a Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS);
“The need to ensure the credibility and openness of the Commission has necessitated the deployment of the IReV Portal, so we ask for the cooperation of all to enable the Commission meet its set objectives,” he said.
In his opening remark, Dr Nkwachukwu Orji, Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra State, hinted that the workshop aimed at updating journalists on the progress so far made ahead of the Nov. election.
Orji, represented by Mr Samuel Nimem, Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Awka, urged the media to report facts and not engage in interpreting what they did not understand.
He urged journalists to always clarify issues from the Commission, and also advised them to endeavour to get accreditation for coverage of the election proper.
0
0
