Use of card readers for presidential poll was responsible for Jonathan’s defeat – PDP chief

A leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State, Adedeji Doherty, has claimed that the card readers used for the presidential election was responsible for President Goodluck Jonathan’s defeat. Doherty, who came third at the PDP governorship primary last year, made the claim on his Facebook page on Sunday.

According to him, INEC should have allowed the Permanent Voter Cards to be used alongside the Temporary Voter Cards. He said, “Togo held its elections today after a long battle between the electoral commission and the government in power over the use of the almighty card readers. A forensic investigation was done and the card readers were seen to be manipulative and did not add any electoral value to the electoral process. “A country as little as Togo decided to abandon the use of card readers and also decided to use both TVCs and PVCs. I challenge Prof. Attahiru Jega to come up and face the nation on what good the card readers had on this 2015 election. Until Jega does this, his character remains questionable and tainted with fraud and deceit.” Doherty, however, called on the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to probe the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure more transparent elections, adding that the use of card readers was “illegal.” He said, “The card reader is the modern day tool or template which opposition parties in modern day Africa use to rig out incumbent governments. They (opposition) first fund a proposal on electronic voting which they know would not pass but they eventually settle with the card readers which is where they were going in the first place, and which we all know is illegal. “They finally get the commission to produce less than needed PVCs and finally give bulk to the opposition party and frustrate the others from getting theirs or make it difficult for those that have theirs to get to their Polling Units. “At the end of the day the commission would have delivered more PVCs to the party it wants in government. Commonsense says that if two parties go into an election and the instrument to vote is given more to one than the other, definitely the person with the highest number of PVCs will win “This must not go without a panel of enquiry to investigate 2015 elections. I would definitely believe that Buhari will constitute this panel during his first 60 days in office. The late Umaru Yar’Adua did something similar in 2007. We are waiting and watching.”

Source: Today News