The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Anambra, Mr Edwin Nwatarali, said 1,000 card readers had been reserved to respond to cases of failure of the card in the forthcoming general elections in the state.
Nwatarali, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Friday, said that the earmarked cards were part of 5,132 card readers delivered to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state.
He said that three card readers would be assigned to each of the 326 electoral wards kin the state, explaining that the 1,000 card readers would be kept to take care of emergencies and failures.
He said that INEC was making adequate preparations for the new dates of the elections and assured that the commission had enough capable hands for the exercise.
The REC disclosed that 22,000 ad hoc staff had been recruited and trained for the exercise in the state, adding that the ad hoc personnel would also be retrained two weeks before the elections ‘’to refresh their minds on the job expectations’’.
He said that the commission had had meetings with the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee representatives of security agencies in the state, stressing that reasonable security provision would be made for the polls.
Nwatarali said that the security agencies in the state had also assured that they were ready ‘’before, during and after elections to secure lives and property’’.
He said that the level of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) distribution in the state had improved, adding that out of 1,917,882 PVCs received, 1,355909 had been collected by the voters.
“We have distributed 82 per cent of PVCs received so far and we are still waiting 45,545 cards that are yet to be delivered to us.
“These undelivered PVCs are for people who complained of their transfer and have not got their cards,’’ he explained.
He urged the people who have not received their cards to visit the INEC offices in their local government areas to do so as only those with it would vote
