Traditional rulers in Anambra State have urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that a network glitch does not occur in Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The monarchs told the INEC chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, to put measures in place to avoid past experiences, especially during the last by-election, where voters had difficulty because of ineffective internet services.
The traditional ruler of Umueri, Igwe Emeka Emebo, who spoke on behalf of the traditional rulers in the state, during the INEC chairman’s meeting with stakeholders ahead the election in Akwa, the state capital, advised the commission to carry out proper mappings across the state to determine which internet network provider’s services function efficiently in the area.
He also urged the commission to engage the services of such network providers to power the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) deployed in the area to ensure that polling units results were uploaded to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IRev) real time.
Igwe Emebo said that there were cases during the past elections when some of them (traditional rulers), and other patriotic citizens in their communities had to hotspot the BVAS using the internet services in their own mobile phones before polling units results could be uploaded to the iRev portal.
“Uploading of polling units results real time to the iRev portal will go a long way in restoring voters’ confidence in the electoral system, especially the outcome,” Igwe Emebo advised.
Meanwhile, the INEC chairman has pledged the commitment of the commission to ensure that the governorship election was conducted in a most free, fair and transparent manner and the outcome most credible.
“We want to reduce election litigation in this country,” Prof Amupitan vowed.
He announced that a total of 114 election observers, over 500 journalists from 76 media organisations have been accredited by the commission to ensure proper coverage of the governorship election.
He charged security agencies deployed to provide security during the election to provide adequate security to newsmen and election observers to ensure that they carried out their jobs professionally unhindered.
“No accredited journalist should be hindered from moving round the state during this governorship election. It is your right,” the INEC chairman stated.
Sources within the police authorities said that a total of 5,224 police personnel have been trained and would be deployed to provide security across the 5,718 polling units in the 326 wards of the 21 local government areas of the state during the election.
Also, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) said it would deploy a total of four of its personnel to each polling unit to maintain peace and order.
