Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, was on Saturday rejected by the Smart Card Reader at his Gwaranga Primary School polling unit of Gwaranga town in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
Dogara arrived the polling unit at about 9.44 am but the Card Reader failed to authenticate his finger-print, as a result of which he had to use the authentication form to vote.
His wife, Mrs Gimbiya Dogara, however voted smoothly without any hitch.
Speaking after casting his vote, the Speaker commended the orderly conduct of the elections at his polling unit.
He said that he was not aware of how the exercise was going on in other places, but added that if the situation were the same in other units, then INEC had done a good job.
Dogara expressed optimism about his chances of winning a re-election to the House of Reps.
Smart card reader also rejected the thumb print of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, amidst reports of delays in arrival of election materials in some parts of the state.
Dickson was, however, allowed to vote at Ward 2 unit 5 in Orerewari, Toru Orua, Sagbama Local Government Area at about 10.35 am after several unsuccessful trials on the card reader.
The governor was allowed to vote after his Permanent Voter Card (PVC) was read manually and his name, signature and phone number were documented.
Speaking after voting, Dickson noted that the failure of the smart card to read his thumb print was not new as it had occurred in the 2015 elections.
He said that despite earlier complaints to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the glitches with the card reader had persisted.
The governor expressed concerns over the reported cases of electoral violence in Nembe Basambri, Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor areas of the state.
In Sagbama Local Government Area, there was low turn-out of voters in most of the polling units.
A voter, Ebidebuomo Juliet, however, said that she was satisfied with the conduct of the polls in Sagbama area.
Voting commenced two hours late in some areas in Yenagoa metropolis while in Ogbia Local Government Area, elections began as scheduled with impressive turn-out of voters.
Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Mr Jimi Agbaje, on Saturday, said he was concerned about the malfunctioning of the card readers during voting at his polling unit in Apapa.
The PDP candidate spoke with newsmen after he and his wife, Biola, voted at polling unit 004,Ward A, Liverpool, Apapa around 11.20a.m.
The card reader had rejected Agbaje’s fingerprints, that of his wife and those of three other voters.
They, however, eventually voted after their names and photographs were verified manually on the voter register.
The PDP candidate said cases of malfunction of card readers were not good for the credibility of elections.
He pointed out that manual verification of voters was susceptible to electoral fraud and unscrupulous elements could capitalise on it to compromise results.
The PDP candidate said that the country should have gone beyond cases of failed card readers to achieve seamless voting.
“Coming to my polling unit, I am concerned that the card readers are not working; the five, six of us, that came to vote before and after me, the card reader wasn’t working.
“And that opens room to all kinds of insinuations, all kinds of mischief and for me, when you get a situation where you have to bypass the card reader, that means we haven’t gotten it right.
“It means it is now open to all kinds of human manipulation because if a card reader doesn’t work, one can collude with one or two officials there, and with the wrong information, I will bypass the system.
“That is the issue, because there is no room in that place for the agents to confirm that the person whose card did not work for the card reader is the owner of that card. So, games can be played,” he said.
On his assessment of the process generally in the state, he said the election had been fine, except in one or two places.
Agbaje praised residents for going out to vote, despite the disappointment of polls postponement to choose their leaders.
He said polls postponement was wrong and should not feature in the country’s political life.
The PDP candidate said he was more than confident that the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would emerge victorious in the election.
There was an impressive turnout of voters at the polling unit, with many of them voting seamlessly.
