Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that permanent voters card would be given before the year ends.
Jega, who made this known on Sunday in Abuja, added that the issuance will make a positive impact on voting.
"As you know, we did biometric data registration; before the end of this year, we will start issuing the permanent voters card, and these permanent voters cards that we are going to issue are chip-based, just like many of our own bank cards. So, they carry all the information on a microchip which is embedded in the card of the card," he said.
"What we believe we can achieve at the minimum by 2015, is that we can achieve 100 percent authentication at the polling units.
If a voter comes to the polling unit and brings out his or her card, we will be able to determine 100 percent whether he is the legitimate holder of the card.
The issues of people using other peoples cards to go and vote, stealing cards or even buying cards will be squarely dealt with... We already have all the data in our database; we are now going to issue the permanent voter cards. All we need to do between now and 2015 is to buy what I call card readers in which we will store all the information." he added.
According to the INEC chairman, the card readers would be available in all polling units, to ascertain the legitimacy of the holder.
Jega added that INEC would explore the possibility of electronic voting if the restrictive provision was deleted from the Constitution.
