Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, at the weekend conceded that the electoral body bungled the printing of ballot papers for the presidential election billed for next Saturday, but said the process was later resolved.
Mr Jega said procuring the presidential election ballot papers became problematic when two foreign companies rejected the job last minute after previously assuring to deliver by the deadline.
“It is true that we had challenges with the contract for the presidential ballot papers,” Mr Jega said. “But the situation has been resolved and we now have all the materials we need for the presidential election.” He said the first company withdrew after initially guaranteeing timely delivery; a second company in South Africa, which took over the contract, also withdrew for the same reason. Each had undertaken to print the ballot papers for the main election and a rerun.
A third company finally delivered on the job, but only after a mix-up forced the commission, as it raced to meet elections deadlines, to cancel the printing of the papers for the main presidential election, and going ahead to commission the rerun printing, he said.
“People got to know this and they made it look as if we deliberately printed the rerun ballot paper and left the main, anticipating a rerun,” he said. “Every electoral commission has to plan for the main election and the rerun. Everything we have done, we can defend them.”
After a week of public rage over the April 2 postponed elections, the rescheduled poll on Saturday was widely adjudged a fair improvement, with millions of voters carried through orderly accreditation and voting with relatively few troubled areas.
An elated Mr Jega said cases of missing names on voters’ registers, late arrival of materials, violence and reported cases of diverted materials, will be tackled before the crucial presidential election on April 16. “Evidently, some politicians are still living in the past believing that snatching ballot boxes and papers will allow them declare false results. But we are confident that with the new accreditation and security, that will not be the case,” he said.
Insulting insinuations
He said the missing names were caused by mix-ups in the deployment of the Direct Data Capture machines and will be corrected before Saturday, while the commission had received all materials needed for the election.
He took swipes at media reports that criticized his leadership in the wake of the cancelled election last week. “Every day you read a report that says there is a division in the commission and you look around and there is nothing like that and you know they want to undermine us. It is really unfortunate,” he said. “They want to portray us as partisan. Some say we have meetings with the politicians. I feel very insulted. People who know us and know our reputation know that cannot happen. Why would we take this job this far and be doing these kind of things. But that is the nature of Nigerian politics; we have a job to do and we will do that job to the satisfaction of Nigerians.”