The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, for the Ondo State Governorship election, Eyitayo Jegede, has condemned inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to fix malfunctioning card readers in some polling units.
Jegede and his wife, who arrived at his polling unit at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Primary School, Akure before 9 in the morning, could not vote because of failure of the card reader to identify his status.
Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State, with over two hundred thousand registered voters, has 15 per cent of the total registered voters in the state.
The Sacred Heart Cathedral Primary School, Akure was used by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as the registration area centre, where voting materials were disbursed to other polling units across the state.
The exercise started as scheduled, as electoral officers manned their polling units ahead of the 8:30am kick off time for voting.
The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Eyitayo Jegede and his wife arrived at the polling unit at about 9 in the morning, but it took the Governorship candidate over one hour before he could vote.
He had to wait that long to vote, due to failure of the card reader.
For one of the election monitoring bodies, YIAGA Africa, the exercise might not be perfect, but it commended the electoral umpire for ensuring prompt commencement of the exercise.
Despite heavy rainfall earlier in the day, voters were not deterred, as they waited to cast their votes.
The exercise was described by observers in Akure, the state capital, as peaceful and successful.
