By Vincent Ujumadu
 
Awka- THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Anambra State, Tuesday, appraised the public demonstration of the Smart Card Readers, SCR, at Igboukwu Ward 1 at the weekend, saying the great success recorded was as a result of painstaking efforts by the stakeholders before and during the exercise.
 
A statement issued by the Anambra State INEC deputy director, public relations, Mr. Frank Egbo said Igbo-Ukwu Ward 1, with total registered voters of 8,033 and 22 polling units (PUs) was selected because of its combined rural and urban nature.

According to him, 95 INEC staff members, which comprised of 22 presiding officers (POs), 71 assistant presiding officers (APOs) and two supervisory presiding officers (SPO) were trained for two days – 5th to 6th March 2015 – on the technicalities and operation of the SCRs, including the process of PU set up, accreditation and authentication of the voter.

The statement read: “All the SCRs worked efficiently in all the PUs, except in one PU, where the operator inadvertently pressed the “close -‘V’ icon” of the card reader which caused the SCR to shut down before the end of the accreditation.

“Nonetheless, a replacement was immediately sent to the area and the process continued till 1pm, the official closing hour.

“There were two police men in every PU and no reported security breach in any area in Igboukwu on the day of the SCR public demonstration. Thus, security arrangement was excellent for the SCR field trial in Anambra State.

Also, time of voter verification was generally good, except in five instances where the time went more that 120 seconds. The Commission hopes to improve on this before the March 28th 2015 Election Day.