Amid the angst across Nigeria following the rejection of obligatory electronic transmission of election results by the National Assembly during its amendment of the Electoral Act, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hinted it is working on procuring at least 200,000 electronic voting machines.

The commission said by its own processes and procedures, it is dealing with four components of Electronic Voting System (EVS): Electronic Voter Register (EVR), Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), Electronic Voter Authentication (EVA) and Electronic Transmission of Results (ETR).

Speaking exclusively with LEADERSHIP in Abuja, INEC’s national commissioner for information and voter education, Festus Okoye, said the commission had invited 49 companies for a Request for Information (RFI) demonstration and that it was yet to shortlist any company for the purposes of supplying any of the machines.

Okoye said, “The commission is working on the estimates for these machines and we are working at procuring at least 200,000.’’

He noted that the commission had been uploading Polling Unit Results with its Smart Card Readers, the Z-pad and other electronic solutions.

“The commission is embarking on the Continuous Voter Registration exercise using a new Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) that captures fingerprints and facials and also has the capacity for authentication,” he said.

Okoye, who did not mention the cost of the machines, stated that the commission was working on a package that contains the four elements of the electronic voting system.

(LEADERSHIP)