Delta Guber Polls: Mistakes not strong enough to affect election outcome, says INEC staff

A staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Mrs Mercy Ehikhanetalo, a witness, on Tuesday at the hearing of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Asaba confirmed that there was strict compliance with the Electoral guidelines in the conduct of the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Delta state. And that the mistakes made during the election were not strong enough to substantially affect the outcome of the election.

Mrs. Ehikhanetalo, who was the third witness of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in  the April 11, 2015 governorship election , spoke while being led in evidence  by the lead counsel to the governor ,  Dr. Alex Iziyon (SAN) , told the tribunal that electoral guidelines were substantially  complied with  during the governorship election in the state. She said card readers were used during the election and that about 67.7 percent of data from the card reader were uploaded into the server in Abuja, at the head office before the server was shutdown.

She also told the tribunal that INEC experienced some challenges with the use of the card readers during the elections, due to poor net work from service providers.

She explained that the card reader had pin cards from Abuja and cannot be fraudulently manipulated, adding that during net work failure, the card reader could upload data to their server in Abuja.

She insisted that during the just concluded governorship election, neither the contestants nor the political parties tempered with the card readers.

Also, against the claims of the petitioners, she told the tribunal that it was after the elections that the INEC staff uploaded results from the polling units to the server at their headquarters in Abuja, pointing out that uploading of data was not automatic, neither was it done simultaneously. 

Ehikhametalo informed the tribunal that some polling units with large number of voters were provided with more than one card reader to ensure that all eligible voters voted during the election.

The witness also told the tribunal that INEC embarked on training of ad -hoc staff on the use of the card reader and that not much mistakes were recorded during the election that could affect the outcome of the election.

Earlier, the tribunal delivered a ruling where some documents were admitted while few others were rejected, Justice Nasiru has adjourned further hearing on the matter to 16^th September, 2015.