Chairman of the Senate Committee on States and Local Governments, Senator Kabiru Gaya, on Thursday faulted the proposal by the Independent National Electoral Commission to use three separate ballot boxes for the March 28 elections.
The electoral body, according to Gaya, had proposed to use a box each for the Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives election slated for the date.
But Gaya, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said information at his disposal indicated that INEC had concluded plans to use three different coloured ballot boxes for the three elections.
He said, “Should INEC go ahead with the plan, it could lead to chaos and could end up truncating the electoral process altogether.
“The way we see it, INEC has introduced so many innovations; maybe as a means of reducing rigging to enhance democracy and its processes. But you see, don’t cramp so many things in one place.
“It is a process of planning; when you do one thing, let it work and then, you move to the next step. We are used to voting with one ballot box. The voter has the choice of choosing who to vote for.”
He said it was the job of the INEC staff to separate the votes dumped inside a single ballot box while reconciliation would later be done with the party agents.
He said, “What they are trying to introduce is that there would be three ballot boxes per polling unit per polling station and the ballot boxes would be coloured for the three elections; one for the president, another for the Senate and another for the House of Representatives.
“The same process will be repeated for the April 11 elections. The problem is this -they said if a voter votes for the senatorial candidate but mistakenly places the ballot paper in the wrong box, maybe he puts it in the box marked for the president, that vote is invalid.
“The process is even confusing for the voter! This would create chaos, trouble and unnecessary confusion.
“The irony of it all is where the INEC would be compounding the electoral process by creating invalid votes with this new arrangement. It means they want to truncate democracy at an early stage.”
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March 28 poll: Senator faults INEC over separate boxes
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