Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin.

Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) in Kwara State has decried non-use of card readers in the last presidential and National Assembly elections in the state and tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the device in Saturday’s polls.

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Speaking with journalists in Ilorin,yesterday, the state chairman of the CNPP, Alhaji Adebayo Lawal, said 20 per cent of the 486,254 voters who voted during the last presidential and national assembly elections in Kwara state were validated by card readers, adding that many of those who voted did so manually. The CNPP, thus, said only those verified and authenticated by card readers must be allowed to vote in the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections as stipulated in the electoral act.

The group said card readers malfunctioned during the last elections in most units across the state, adding that the development resulted in alleged over voting and use of unclaimed permanent voter cards (PVCs) by agents of a certain political party to vote during the elections with approval of INEC officials. “This is clearly against the initial guideline given by INEC that only voters accredited through card readers would be allowed to vote, and that any voting  not verified and authenticated by the card readers would be declared null and void,” he said.