BY DOTUN IBIWOYE

All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) presidential aspirant, Chief Harry Akande, says the infrastructure that will enable next year’s elections to be free and fair are not in place.

According to him, the delay in signing the contract for the Direct Digital Data Capture (DDC) machines  by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  is a major set back as the dates for the elections draw nearer.

INEC had reopened invitation to companies earlier disqualified to bid for the DDC after a Chinese firm that initially  won the bid failed to meet the requirements given by INEC.

This development forced the commission to start the bidding process all over.

At a book launch in Lagos, last week, Akande stressed that the credibility of an election has a lot of things encompassed in it including the usage of time.

“The events that have taken place with  extension of time, we will see. It is unfortunate that as at this moment they haven’t signed the contract for the DDC  machines, and if we don’t have that, we don’t have the new voter list, we can’t have a credible election. That has to happen first”, he said