Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has said the commission will spare no effort to make the 2015 general elections not only the best in Nigeria’s political history, but also the most acceptable to citizens.
Jega stated this in Paris, France, on Thursday at a luncheon held in his honour by officials of the Nigerian embassy. He is in France at the invitation of that country’s authorities to observe the French presidential election holding on Sunday, April 22, 2012.
Among measures being pursued towards ensuring free and credible elections, according to him, is the ongoing consolidation and updating of the voter register and the plan to issue chip-based permanent cards to all voters.
Addressing officials and staff members of the embassy, the chairman assured that INEC would achieve seamless integration of the data of voters and institutionalise continuous voter registration before the 2015 general elections.
“We are trying to institutionalise a system of continuous voter registration. We have been able to set up data bases at the national level and in all the states and the Federal Capital Territory.
We are now working very hard to clean up that data and consolidate it, and to ensure that both the states’ data and the national data are well integrated. Our hope is that before the end of this year, we will have the technology sorted out so that people can register continuously,” he said.
Prof Jega promised that the mistakes of 2011 would be corrected before 2015, saying, “Our hope is that by 2015, we will be able to, at the minimum, ensure 100 per cent authentication of voters if we cannot do electronic voting.
We will ensure that whoever votes in 2015 will be somebody who has brought his or her card, and that card will be inserted in a card reader so as to establish that he or she is the true owner of that card.
That is what we are working hard to achieve.”
Responding on behalf of the other staff, the acting head of Mission at the Nigerian embassy, Ambassador Felix Awanbor? said, “Your work gave us a new spring in our steps and we are very proud of you and our country.”