BEVERLY HILLS, December 05, (THEWILL) –Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday expressed worries over INEC’s use of card readers, stressing that the commission must review the concepts of card reader and permanent voter cards, PVCs, before the 2019 general elections.
He spoke against the backdrop of the failure of the card reader to read his biometrics to enable him vote in the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State. This was a repeat of what had happened to the ex-President in the March 28 presidential election.
Addressing journalists in Otuoke after being eventually accredited for the governorship election, Jonathan said: “I am quite worried about the PVC and card reader,” even as he held that the failure rate of the device was high.
“From my experience today, INEC must review this issue of card reader and PVC very well before we go into the 2019 election, because even during the presidential election, the machine rejected me and my wife.
“Today, because they changed my own, they changed my wife’s own, it was successful. But about five people who came with me, including my mother, my elder sister and a former commissioner in Bayelsa state, were unsuccessful.
“These are known people, so they cannot carry fake or cloned cards. They are known senior people from this state. So, out of five of us, only me and my wife were accredited.
“The percentage of failure is high and I am a bit uncomfortable. But being an isolated state election, they should be able to handle it because they have enough of the incident forms. So, they will all vote. But I will advise that before we go into the 2019 election, the whole concept of the card reader and the technology must be properly reviewed.”
Jonathan went on to advise the people to be orderly, calling on whoever emerges victorious among the candidates to “carry everyone along.”
While charging INEC to ensure that the exercise goes smoothly, he posited that “Transparent and credible elections are the hallmark of democracy. When elections are not credible and peaceful, then we elect leaders that cannot give account of their stewardship.”
The former President noted that “The votes of the citizens must count. So, I am advising all my people from Bayelsa state to be calm, the young people must be calm to ensure that we have a peaceful and credible election.”
