By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

Nnewi — Two All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, senatorial candidates for Anambra South and Central senatorial zones, Chief Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and Chief Victor Umeh, have described as an embarrassment the malfunction of the card reader in last weekend’s presidential and the National Assembly elections in some states of the federation.

Speaking at Oraifite, his home town, Chief Ndukwe, who was the former Vice Chairman Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, said: “The problem of card readers in the state was quite embarrassment to many of us, in my home town Oraifite, there is no polling booth where the card reader is operational.

“In fact, it was even compounded by the fact the card readers were known not to be working, and people were agitating to vote, it was not until around 1pm that they got authorization to start manual accreditation.’

‘’Because of the environment we are operating and the large voter’s turnout that characterized this particular election, the voting entered into the night, and in many of these locations you don’t have electricity, so there was confusion that might lead to issues that may not be palatable.

“You know because of our believe in the democratic set up in the country, we have subjected and submitted ourselves to this process, also because we have a lot of confidence in the popularity of my candidature, we also think that no matter what condition, we will still find victory in the election, is just that one would have wanted it to be different.

“Many of the voters came out with plenty of enthusiasm for the election, in fact watchers said that they have not seen this kind of voter turnout like witnessed today in this environment, so it is interesting that this kind of thing happened.

‘’I hope that for the future, some of these things might be minimized so that people will not have to suffer undue hardships just because they want to cast their votes.