What INEC Chairman Said During His Screening Today

The nominee for the position of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu on Thursday, October 29, said he thinks that electronic voting is desirable and inevitable.

He made this statement while responding to questions during his screening.

According to him, despite the fact that e-voting might be desirable, the implications must be considered.

Mahmoud Yakubu undergoing screening

He said: “I think e-voting is desirable and inevitable but we need to think through the implications of what we do. Photographs and biometric has been added to e-voting. The experiences of other countries show we have to be careful.”

The nominee went ahead to say that these challenges have to be treated with ready solutions.

“For the first time we have achieved democratic development in Nigeria. We have a culture of last minute fire brigade approach in the preparation of elections in this country. We can’t transplant these experiences, we can only borrow,” he said.

Furthermore, he assured the nation free and fair elections in a peaceful voting environment.

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While responding to questions on the PVC’s, Yakubu said: “About 70 million Nigerians registered for the 2015 elections, 56.3 million PVC distributed, 500 thousand PVC unprinted at the time of the elections, 12.3million PVCs not distributed.

“Instead of finding fault on why they collected PVC in Borno and they did not collect elsewhere, I will rather focus that by this time next year all the 12.3million PVC’s and 500million PVC are distributed subsequently.”

The nominee stated that by the 2019 elections, there will be no issues with the issue of PVC for those who have come of age and relocated, although people have the right to take the PVCs and not vote.

Meanwhile, five nominees for INEC commissioners have been screened. The nominees are Baba Shettima Arfo, Antonia Taiye Simbine and Amina Zakari.

Others are Muhammed Mustapha Lecky and Soyebi Solomon.

President Buhari on Wednesday, October 21, named Yakubu as the national chairman of the INEC. He is a professor of political history and international studies, and was the executive secretary of the tertiary education trust fund.

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