The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said the deployment of card readers for the February polls would eliminate rigging in the electoral process.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Enugu, Professor Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, disclosed this during a meeting between the commission and political stakeholders in Enugu.

Onukaogu said INEC had taken a number of steps to ensure that the mistakes of the past were averted and people’s mandate protected.

“Using the card readers will be a watershed in the electoral process in the country. Politicians should rather concentrate on issue-based campaigns with a view to convincing the electorate than plotting ways to discredit the process. ‘Those plotting to rig the February elections will be disappointed. Those that stole our voters’ cards are just wasting their time because they cannot use them. It is impossible to hack into the INEC card readers so the best thing for politicians is to go and campaign instead of plotting to rig. The idea is to make sure that the electorates have a say in governance and their mandate protected,” he said.

Onukaogu appealed to eligible voters to ensure that they collected their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, to exercise their franchise.

“The PVC is your voice and through it you can speak. It is your security because your safety in this country will depend on the choice you make,” he said.

In his presentation, the Head, Information Technology and Communication Unit of the commission, Mr Chukwuemeka Nnaji, said the card readers had coded security features.

Nnaji explained that the security features would make it difficult for the card readers to be used in case of theft.

“The card readers will only read cards at the polling units where it is coded for,” he said.

Nnaji said that the card readers had the capacity to record the number of actual voters in the polling units as well as identify polling booths where illegal and multiple thumb printing occurred.