As Nigerians await the result of Saturday’s presidential election, some Journalists that covered the election in Daura, Katsina State, where President Buhari participated in the voting exercise say the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has started getting it right.
One of the Journalists told VON Correspondent, Timothy Choji that the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has indeed made voting seamless.
“I think for long we have not seen a decent arrangement like this one. Before now, we were all witnesses to the snatching of ballots, the problem of vote buying and all other problems hitherto associated with the registration of voters, voting and so on.
“But this new technology in particular is so impressive because we’ve not seen any hitch. Voting was orderly, security personnel have not done anything that will annoy or provoke the voters so it is a very good development.
I will say INEC has started getting it right because of you look at the process from the display of the voters register to the accreditation and voting proper, it is so appreciable so I think INEC has started getting it right,” he said.
The second respondent said he took his time to monitor proceedings from across the country and he sums up his impression this way:
“As Journalists, we may not be concerned with only the area we cover because we are always going to be concerned about what is happening around the country. But from the area where I covered, which is the polling unit where the President of Nigeria came to vote, it was order and I probably wouldn’t have expected anything less.
“But generally I have been getting series of reports from other colleagues who are spread across Nigeria and so far from those reports, I will say it has been 60 per cent hitch-free.
“People have actually come out in numbers to vote. I can see that INEC has started getting it right. You could see the speed at which the process actually went on. I think on a large scale, the BVAS has come to stay. It is an amazing technology that is working for us now.”
Both Journalists praised Nigerians for heeding to enlightenment messages dished out by INEC during the voter registration exercise and before the election.
They called on Nigerians to accept the outcome of the election in order to give rom for democracy to continue to thrive in the country.
N.O
