5 Card Readers Breakdown In Dutse Polling Unit

Eniola Olayemi

Five out of the 13 electoral Card Reader Machines deployed for the conduct of the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Polling Unit 001 at Dutse Alhaji area of Abuja, failed. There were no extra card readers to supplement the ones that were malfunctioning.

The situation resulted in long queues of intending voters who were eager to vote even after the initial 2pm time for closure of votes.

Some of the INEC ad hoc staff were observed finding it difficult to operate the Card Reader Machine, while others simply used the voter registers to verify voters before they were manually accredited and given ballot papers to cast their votes.

As at 4pm when this report was filed, voting was still ongoing in Dutse Polling Units, 001, 003C and 003.