THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has praised the functionality of smart card readers for the accreditation of voters, despite widespread failures of the card readers across the country.

In many polling units monitored by The ICIR across the states, malfunctioning of card readers have delayed the voting process. In some places, functional card readers failed to authenticate many eligible voters.

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But INEC expressed satisfaction with the usability of the card readers, adding that all the presidential candidates had been accredited with the machine.

#INEC is pleased to report that the Smart Card Reader proved its functionality and efficiency by successfully authenticating all Presidential Candidates among millions of other Voters within a short time at their respective polling units across the country.#NigeraDecides2019

— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) February 23, 2019

Kingsley Moghalu, presidential candidate of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) expressed dissatisfaction with the functionality of card readers in his ward at Nnewi North, Ward 2 in Anambra State.

“I came out by 8 a.m to vote but the card readers were not functioning; so I went back to my house and came out by almost noon to vote,” Moghalu said. “As you can see, some voters left out of frustration having waited for about three hours. This will affect the voting pattern. Democracy has a lot of challenges over performance failure by INEC but when I come to power, all these will change.”

Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives, relied on the authentic form to vote as the card reader failed to capture his fingerprint at his polling unit in Bauchi State.

Widespread cases of card reader failures have been reported in the South East, South-South and some parts of North Central geopolitical zone of the country.