The persistent call from within and outside Nigeria that the process for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections should not be compromised by shoddy preparations or adoption of questionable methods rings loud again. This time, the allegation is that of the electoral body's likelihood to revert to the use of a manual register for the April polls.
Recent media reports have alluded to clandestine moves by some unnamed politicians allegedly mounting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission,(INEC) to jettison the use of the data captured by the DDC machine for the manual register. As expected, some political parties and groups of individuals have vehemently opposed this and are out to sway public opinion against such a move. Both the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Action Alliance Party (AAP) are spearheading the campaign. INEC, they insist, should not succumb to the antics of the anti-democrats who are the presumed masterminds of the plot.
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