Voters Register Imperfect But Integrity Proof – Jega

attahiru jegaChairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Attahiru Jega yesterday said the voters’ register of the commission although imperfect has the requisite integrity to be used for any election.

Following the conduct of the governorship election in Anambra State, the candidates of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) – Chris Ngige, Tony Nwoye and Ifeanyi Ubah respectively, had condemned the voters’ register used by INEC saying it was tampered and contained under aged voters.

They, therefore, called for the cancellation of the election on that ground.

But speaking at the 4th quarterly Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) meeting yesterday in Abuja, Jega said the voters’ register was “not as bad as some are strenuously trying to make it appear”.

He said: “As we are all aware, complaints were made about the register of voters in the aftermath of the Anambra governorship election, with at least one political party/candidate alleging that the register is lacking in integrity and calling for the cancellation of the election.

“Let me use this opportunity to categorically affirm that while our register of voters is not perfect, it has requisite integrity and it compares favourably with any register of voters on our continent”.

The INEC chairman said the commission would keep “improving upon it and we have planned to keep doing so through the continuous voter registration process”.

The IPAC meeting has been affording the commission vital ideas towards strengthening mutual trust ahead of the 2015 elections, he said.