By Ibrahim Abdul’Aziz
Yola
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa state, Kasim Gaidam has said the era of manipulating election results for the highest bidders is gone for good.
Gaidam made this known when he received National commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in charge of Adamawa, Borno and Taraba, retired AVM Ahmed Mu’azu yesterday in Yola.
The REC advised politicians to appreciate that, under the new dispensation, INEC has no power to change any election results, noting that it would tantamount to a waste of time for candidates to think of conniving with INEC staff members to change the election results.
He noted that, starting from accreditation process through card-reader, e-tracking of results from polling units, up to collation centres, it is difficult for any individual or group to manipulate the electoral process in favour of unpopular contestants.
He further said that the electoral process had been designed to reinforce voters’ confidence and check other vices that would thwart the will of the majority in any election.
Gaidam urged the political parties to intensify their efforts at voter education and mobilisation of the electorate to reduce drastically the number of void votes ahead of the 2019 general elections and beyond.
On the continuous voter registration (CVR) in the state, the REC said 129,000 eligible voters had registered in 2017.
“The 2017 exercise will be closed on December 21, 2017 and it will continue on January 8, 2018,” Gaidam said, adding that owners of nearly 127,000 permanent voter cards (PVCs) were yet to come and collect them.
In his remarks, retired AVM Mu’azu said that the purpose of his working visit to the state was to monitor the ongoing CVR and commended the outcome of the exercise, judging by what he saw at the various centres visited across the state.
