Ngige refuses to vote, says process faulty

Senator Chris Ngige representing Anambra Central Senatorial District refused to vote on Saturday, claiming that the electoral process had been compromised.

Ngige, who is contesting for a re-election in the Senate, said he chose to waive his right to vote in the on-going elections when our correspondent met him at Alor ward 1, in his home town.

According to him, the poor working conditions of the card readers and the eventual usage of the manual system would lead to manipulations and other fraudulent electoral practices.

“When I came here, they just wrote my name in a piece of paper with some other names. My fingers were not marked with accreditation ink also. I complained to the INEC officials and they told me they were directed not to do so,” Ngige lamented, saying he was not going to be a part of a faulty election.

Majority of the card readers deployed by INEC did not work for hours into the election.

He said the elections should have been postponed after INEC realised that majority of the card readers were not working.

In a bid to check a possible crisis situation in the state, INEC directed all polling stations to revert to the manual process.

However, many candidates expressed worries when some polling stations later stopped the manual accreditation, citing orders from undisclosed authorities.

Ngige said INEC, by the rules, was supposed to have back-up card readers in the event of one failing. According to him, continual failure of card readers should justify a shift of the elections by the electoral body.

He said even President Goodluck Jonathan’s accreditation, which was done manually, should be disqualified by INEC.

The national chairman, All Progressive Grand Alliance and contestant for Anambra Central Senatorial zone, Chief Victor Umeh, said INEC messed up the electoral process by providing non-functional card readers.

He said, “As a result of this, voting was delayed for over five hours in most parts of the state.”