The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), On Wednesday, disclosed that the political elite have made the smart card readers become redundant and inconsequential in the country’s electrical process.

The Chairman, Voter Education and Information of INEC, Mr Festus Okoye, made the disclosure at a meeting to review the November 16 Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections in Abuja.

Okoye, who is also a national commissioner in INEC, said it was time a solution was found to the smart card readers’ challenges.

“The smart card reader has lost its efficacy; the smart card reader has lost its vibrancy in relation to the electoral process, because the political elite have found a way around it.

“So rather than use a smart card reader, they just ignore it because ultimately, they know that when they get to the court, the court will say that you want to prove over voting? We want to see voters register? We want to see  INEC form?

“As far as I’m concerned, the smart card reader has become redundant and inconsequential,” he said.

He noted that the clamour for electoral reforms would not solve the problem of electoral violence and challenges unless everyone imbibed the spirit of democratic spirit.

“Our political elite in this country should believe in democracy and democratic processes,” he said.

“There are challenges and there are problems with our electoral process but I want to assured you that this particular commission has the courage, has the presence of mind and has the drive to bring in new innovation and new creative ideas in order to Improve our electoral process.

“But we need the support of  Civil Societies Organisations and all Nigerians to achieve it,” Okoye said.

The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a coalition of over 70 organisations, called on the National Assembly to work on the review of the electoral legal framework to curb irregularities.

Mr Clement Nwankwo, Convener of the civil society groups, said part of the reason for the meeting was to have conversation on the group’s experience while observing the Kogi governorship and senatorial election as well as the Bayelsa election.

He said this was with the aim of reviewing what happened and being able to take lessons from that.

He explained that it was also important to look at reports from the field because the election threw up lots of lessons that raised the question on what needed to be done.

“Since 2006 the country has been tinkering with its electoral laws, yet we still find that each time there is an election there seems to be some urgency about reviewing the legal framework and Kogi election has again thrown up that urgency.

“Rather than just reviewing and passing again another electoral act amendment, the entire electoral act should be reviewed with the aim of achieving what is called a comprehensive electoral act repel and re-enactment.

“This is in order to have a one stop document for all electoral laws not scattered in one, two, three, four and five documents as we have.

“You will be shocked that some of the judges presiding over election petitions tribunals had to come to us to ask for the copy of the electoral act because we had produced copies of the compendium of electoral laws,’’ he said.

Nwankwo said that the groups would be pushing for a comprehensive review of the electoral act for use.

He added that there was enough time for stakeholders, executive and legislators to push through fresh electoral act reform bill.

“This is much more urgent than the hate speech bill so we will be disappointed if the hate speech bill has its first hearing before the electoral bill,’’ he said.

Nwankwo said that this would go a long way to curb electoral violence among other irregularities and deliver credible electoral process.

Mr Mohammed Haruna, INEC National Commissioner, supervising Kogi said that too much attention was focused on the commission rather than other players like political parties and candidates.

Haruna said that the commission knew a foretime that Kogi election would be problematic and the violence witnessed was predicated especially after the impeachment of the deputy governor.

He said there was need for an attitudinal change to the electoral law otherwise any form of electoral reform would still not hold sway in terms of deterring people from malpractice.

Mr Dominic William, Political Counsellor, British High Commission, commended the civil society groups for their work in letting the citizens know what happened on the Election Day.

William said that the level of electoral malpractices in the election was a call to really start holding politicians and government agencies to account.

He added that one challenge the Kogi and Bayelsa election showed was lack of matured political culture in the country.

William said lots of the challenges in Kogi were traced to political parties and that was why the role of CSOs was important to hold political actors accountable with a view to having a change in the political culture.