Jonathan Finally Gets Accredited

President Goodluck Jonathan and wife, Patience Jonathan, have failed to be accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s  voter card readers.

Three voter card readers failed to read the president’s biometrics and accredit him for voting at the Otazi playground polling centre in his home town, Otueke, Bayelsa state.

Goodluck Jonathan in Otuoke, March 27

Jonathan had come to the polling unit at 9.20am and one hour later was yet to be accredited after three different card readers failed to capture his and his wife’s biometrics.

A sweating Jonathan said that he wasn’t worried about the malfunction and described it as a little delay.

“President Jonathan is just one person, so if we have problem with one person, as far as the elections is going on well nationally,” he said. “I’m not worried, there might be a delay, my interest is that we conduct a credible election.”

He said that no sacrifice is was too much for the nation and told eager voters to be patient with the electoral body and make sure they get accredited.

UPDATE: Jonathan Gets Accredited

Jonathan was manually accredited and revealed that he would be back by 1pm to finally cast his vote despite the large number of people at the scene.

The INEC boss, Attahiru Jega, had earlier said that if the PVC’s failed to accredit voters, the commission’s staff at the polling units would resort to manual accreditation.

The resident electoral commissioner at the polling booth, Barito Kpade, confirmed that the president and his wife were not accredited by the card readers and said that the situation was very embarrassing as they had conducted tests before today to fix any problems by the machines.

He said he wasn’t aware of the reason why the card readers failed to work.