The Nigerian Senate has said it believed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was ready for the 2015 general elections after the Commission’s chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega appeared before it on Wednesday to explain the state of readiness of INEC to conduct the elections scheduled for March 28 and April 11.
The Senate President, Senator David Mark, said he had not doubt that INEC would conduct free and credible elections. He said the use of card readers would ensure that the elections were held without any major rancour.
“We have so much confidence that you will organise free, fair and credible elections; indeed all of us who are standing for election in the Senate will like to come back.
“We will like to win our election but we want to win in free, fair and credible elections. I can say that nobody seated here wants to come back through the back door.
“It is for us to assist you to conduct free, fair and credible elections and whatever we can do between now and the date you have chosen for us to go for the elections, we will not hesitate to do.
“I believe that you have benefitted from this interaction; we have also benefitted.
“A number of issues have been raised and they are pointers to the way you will like to look at the administrative and technical issues that have also been raised.”
While some senators expressed doubts over the use of card readers for the elections, Jega said the Commission had put every logistics in place to ensure there were no problems during voting. He demonstrated how the card reader works using the permanent voter’s card of some senators.
Sen. Bukola Saraki (APC-Kwara) in an interview after the session, said he was satisfied with the card reader demonstration on the floor of the Senate.
“I am very satisfied with the working of the card reader; it has shown that it does work. I think everybody will be more convinced that for this election, we will be using the card reader.”
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