Bauchi records low turnout in INEC’s mock accreditation

The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Hamman Tukur Sa’ad, however said that the card-readers functioned as expected, adding that the turn-out was low because people were aware that the exercise was not the main election.Sa’ad said there were 14 polling units in the area with 30 card-reader devices deployed by the commission, adding that so […]

The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Hamman Tukur Sa’ad, however said that the card-readers functioned as expected, adding that the turn-out was low because people were aware that the exercise was not the main election.
Sa’ad said there were 14 polling units in the area with 30 card-reader devices deployed by the commission, adding that so far there was no reason to use the spare devices in case of failure.
The commissioner explained that the aim of the exercise was to test the efficiency of the card-readers on the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and expressed optimism that the forth-coming election would be successful.
The state INEC boss said that the only challenge of the exercise was convincing  people to come out of their houses and partake in the exercise.
The exercise was held in 14 polling units from 8 am to 1pm in Jama’are ‘B’  registration area of Jama’are Local  Government Area of the state.
Some of the polling units visited by reporters include Horare polling unit, Yola polling unit, Jeyogel polling unit, Digiza Kofar Jauro polling unit, Azizi Primary School polling station and Jabbori polling station,  where it was observed that people were very reluctant to come out for the  mock exercise.
As at 11.30am, the average  battery strength of the card reader devices  at the various polling units was 78 percent, which shows that the device could function for more than eight hours.
Many people who spoke with reporters in Jama’are expressed satisfaction with the way the card readers were working since it could identify a voter’s card within seven seconds.