In other to avoid the challenges of card readers and its challenges of card reading machine during the July 22 council elections, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has dumped the machine for manual voting.
The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has issued out its guidelines on the conduct of elections into the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas of the state, saying it will not make use of Card Reader machine in the conduct of the forthcoming Local Government elections.
LASIEC Chairman Justice Ayotunde Phillips (Rtd) revealed this in a statement signed by the commission’s Head, Public Affairs, Oladapo Olatunde.
In a meeting with political party stalwarts ahead of the election, said Card Readers would not be used because the law setting up the commission had no provision for the use of the machine for the conduct of its elections.
The former Chief Judge of Lagos, however, promised that the commission would amend its law after the July 22 election to accommodate the use of electronic machines in future elections.
With the amendment, conduct of party primaries by political parties for aspirants for the Chairmanship, Vice Chairmanship, Councillorship seats of the LGs/LCDAs is now expected to commence today and end on May 25.
The decision to extend the period for the conduct of party primaries by one week, the commission said, was in response to an appeal made by leaders of political parties in the state during a meeting organised by the Commission.
During the meeting attended by state chairmen and secretaries of political parties, the parties had requested the commission to give them more time for the conduct of their primaries, a request the commission promised to consider.
The commission has also released the guidelines for the conduct of the elections.
The guidelines which were presented to the party leaders by Justice Phillips, spelt out the types of forms: LASIEC 001, LASIEC 002 and LASIEC 008 which political parties are expected to obtain for their candidates from the commission between April 18 and May 26.
Failure to comply with the guidelines and other relevant provisions of the law, she said, would attract appropriate sanctions.
According to the guidelines, political parties are expected to pay N100, 000 on behalf of each Chairmanship aspirant, N75,000 for each Vice-chairmanship Candidate and N50,000.00 for each Councillorship aspirant and the money is expected to be paid into any commercial bank in favour of Lagos State Government.
According to the new guidelines for the conduct of the 2017 Local Government elections in the State, there will now be three types of forms namely LASIEC 001, LASIEC 002 and LASIEC 008 which political parties are expected to obtain for their candidates from the Commission.
Also contained in the guidelines are the administrative charges to be paid by political parties on behalf of their candidates.
Source: Leadership ,Nation