Baba Negedu KADUNA The Kaduna State chapter of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has raised an alarm over Saturday’s local government elections in the state, alleging that the electronic voting machine has been compromised in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The party which addressed a press conference in Kaduna said, “the integrity of the results have been compromised. PDP went into this election against SIECOM, the APC and Governor Nasir el-Rufai.
There was a ward in Barnawa (Kaduna South Local Government Area) where the result printed as at 10am today (Saturday) reads 182 for APC and 18 for PDP giving all other parties zero”
This was coming as Gov ernor Nasir Ahmed El- Rufai shortly after casting his vote at the polling unit 01 Ungwan Sarki Kaduna, expressed confidence in the process, saying the outcome should be acceptable by all the parties in the election, as it is almost impossible to rig the election.
El-Rufai said the electronic voting machine is an improvement over the one used in the 2018 local government election, where multiple voting were experienced.
El-Rufai however expressed dismay over the low turnout of electorate in the elections, attributing it to the late arrival of election materials. He said there is significant improvement in the process compared to the 2018 version of the poll.
He said: “The improved voting machine we now have makes it nearly impossible to do multiple voting which happened a lot in the 2018 election; you activate the voting machine with your card, once you come and you are accredited, once you are sure this is your polling unit, you go to the voting machine and place your voters card, it opens the machine for you and you vote. ”
The whole process takes less than fifteen seconds. It is very fast, very efficient and you will see your ballot paper being printed, so that the ballot paper can be counted.
“\We are not going to behave like other parties or other state government of the ruling party. We will allow the people of Kaduna State to elect who they want. We do not have to win everywhere, though we have worked for the people of Kaduna State, they have seen our foot print, the government and the local government everywhere, they have seen and we are confident that all reasonable minded people will vote for our party, our candidate because they know we are committed to the welfare of the people”. “We don’t believe in cheat
