The director of Contact and Mobilisation of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation, a former Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday, engaged in an argument over the introduction of the smart card readers (SCR) in the forthcoming general election.

Both Gana and INEC’s director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Osaze Oluwole-Uzzi, disagreed, on Tuesday, in Abuja, at a public presentation and public launch of a book entitled, “Guide to Understanding Electoral Offences,” on the usage of the new technology during the elections.

Gana had punctured INEC’s voter verification and authentication process, ahead of the March 28 National Assembly and Presidential election, insisting that the process was cumbersome and might disenfranchise millions of potential voters on election day, thus creating confusion.

According to Gana, “an innovation such as the Smart Card Readers, requires enough time to test to avoid minimum disturbance to the voters, with over 68million registered voters, INEC should have test run it in a small election and certify if it is good, you don’t test run smart card readers in a national election.”

Gana, who explained that it was important for the voters to be educated on the electoral process to avoid chaos, further said, “anything that can confuse and frustrate the voters must be avoided.”

He, however, warned against attempt to compromise the process, saying, “Nobody should be allowed to tamper with any vote, let the result be authentically declared.”