Polling booths are to be positioned in a way to make it difficult for people to see how voters cast their votes during elections, a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, said yesterday in Awka, Anambra State.
Orji, the REC in charge of Anambra State, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the measure was to make it impossible for anyone to know who an electorate voted for.
The measure comes against the backdrop of massive vote-buying reported in recent elections, including the governorship election in Ekiti State, which analysts said was characterised by vote-buying.
“The commission is considering re-arranging the way polling booths are positioned during elections, to make it difficult for anybody to see the place a voter voted,” Orji said.
He described vote-buying as another big threat to democracy that needed everyone to support INEC to eradicate.
“INEC cannot check the problem of vote -buying alone. It is a crime that security agents, the public who collect the money and politicians who buy the votes must come together to tackle.”
The INEC chief urged eligible persons, who were yet to register in the ongoing continuous voter registration in Anambra, to do so before the August 17 deadline.
He said the registration would not be extended beyond August 17, adding: “From today we have 1,985 days to the general election.”
Orji said on August 17, INEC would issue notice of election, indicating that the 2019 general election was good to go and that party primaries would follow between this month and next month.
“In Anambra State, the registration is now taking place from Sunday to Saturday, beginning from 9am to 5pm daily and our officials are in the 21 local governments.
“We have functional machines, enough manpower and materials for the exercise and we encourage eligible persons to take advantage of this opportunity to register.”
The REC, who stressed the importance of enlightenment and voter education to successful elections, enjoined the media to do more in educating Nigerians on electoral activities, ahead of the elections.
On uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), he said INEC did not have many uncollected PVCs in Anambra, but advised those yet to pick theirs to come and collect them.
“We intend to photocopy the uncollected PVCs in our custody and paste them for public viewing. After that we will send bulk SMS to the owners because we want everybody to have his PVC before the elections,” Orji said.
