INEC extends voting in Anambra as exercise continues till Sunday

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended voting exercise in the Anambra governorship election, TopNaija reports.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for INEC in Anambra State, Dr Nkwachukwu Orji announced the extension of voting by one hour, from the previous 2:30pm to 3:30pm.

He also added that voting will continue on Sunday, insisting that an hourly briefing of the media will help to update all as the election progresses.

He also added that voting will continue on Sunday, insisting that an hourly briefing of the media will help to update all as the election progresses.

The decision he said is to help voters in places where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) failed.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige could not get his accreditation done in order to vote for over an hour due to the failure of the Biometric Voters Accreditation System machine.

He was at the Alor Ward polling unit in the Idemili South Local Government Area of the state during the exercise. Moreso, he put the failure rate of the machine at 30 per cent.

Ngige insisted that he would wait until he voted despite the setback. The Minister called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to find a way to resort to manual accreditation in such circumstances to allow people to exercise their franchise.

He said, ” I have been here for over an hour without success. I’m not impressed.”

Ngige said, “The failure rate is between 25 to 30 per cent. This is not encouraging. INEC ought not to pack its equipment after each election. They should have tested their machine a week before the elections in a mock trial.”