The Independent National Electoral Commission has released additional guidelines to the existing 2015 Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of elections in the country.
The commission said this was done after it had approved the pilot of the Continuous Accreditation and Voting Procedure at elections, saying the model was adopted during the rerun elections across the country.
This information was contained in the commission’s bulletin released in Abuja on Thursday.
The commission however stressed that “all procedures specified in the Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2015 General Elections remain in effect”.
It said that voting shall be by continuous accreditation and voting system and that accreditation process shall comprise authentication and verification of voters, using the Smart Card Reader.
The card, it said, would be used in the checking of the register of voters, and providing ink to the cuticle of the specified finger.
The bulletin said, “The ballot paper shall be issued in the prescribed manner by the Presiding Officer of a polling unit/voting point (settlement) of the FCT, and the Assistant Presiding Officer in the case of a voting point.
“Accreditation and voting shall commence at 8am and close at 2pm, provided that any voters already in the queue shall be granted access to accreditation and voting in the prescribed manner.
“The polling unit layout shall require the Presiding Officer to sit next to the APO II;
“The Presiding Officer shall act as the Overseer”.
