The Federal Government yesterday approved N2.6billion for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to print 40 million permanent voters’ card, saying it will further strengthen effort by the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to purge the nation’s electoral process of fraud.
These permanent cards which will replace the 73.5 million temporary voters cards issued by the Commission for the 2011 general elections, is said to be such that will be lugged with microchips containing the voters biodata and will be valid for a minimum of 10 years.
The approval made at the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, is only for the first phase, as INEC is expected to produce more cards by next year to meet the required number of voters in the country.
Information minister, Labaran Maku who gave this hint while briefing State House Correspondents alongside the minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama said while the issuance of the permanent voters’ cards was in line with the 2010 Electoral Act, the contract to print the new cards was awarded to ACT Technologies Limited, and was expected to be delivered within seven months.
The features of the cards, according to Maku, are such that would prevent multiple voting in any location across the country because they would be electronically enabled.
He said, “Next year, INEC is expected to bring another proposal for the production of another batch of voters’ card to Council for approval. The electoral process is one of the key programmes of this administration.
We saw from the last election, that our electoral process is getting cleaner by the day. Post election cases were down by more than 2/3, so the electoral process will continue to receive the attention of this administration.
We urge INEC to ensure that the cards are printed as soon as possible and are distributed to voters so that they can be ready for other elections between now and 2015” .
Maku further disclosed that during the Council meeting, President Jonathan directed all federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to step up action on his earlier instructions to as much as possible ensure local procurement of items.