Special voting: Immigration officer fumes over ‘identity theft’ in Ablekuma Central

Source3news

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An Immigration officer who showed up to cast his ballot at Ablekuma Central was told someone had mistakenly used his identity to vote.

The officer, who wishes to remain anonymous, expressed outrage and has urged the Electoral Commission(EC) to exercise extreme caution to prevent such incidents in the future.

He was eventually taken through a manual verification process to allow him to vote in Monday’s nationwide special voting exercise.

“I came here to cast my vote, and I gave my ID for them to check and see if my name is in the list. When they checked, they realised that somebody has used my name to vote which is very bad, so I raised alarm that this is not me and they asked me to wait but they are going to verify.

“So, they used the manual verification. What I want to say is that the EC official should be very careful because my picture is there so for them to mistakenly use somebody’s identity for me to come and see, it’s very worrying,” the Officer said.

The EC in a number of media briefings assured that it will ensure the integrity of the electoral process is safeguarded in both the December 2 and 7 elections.

For some, the incident raises serious questions about the vulnerability of the electoral system to fraud and manipulation, something the EC has promised to prevent.

Officer takes photos in booth

In a related development, within the same constituency, a security officer was forced to delete photos he took in the booth after casting his ballot.

Some EC officials who were monitoring the process spotted the unlawful conduct of the security man and swiftly apprehended him.

Other security personnel on duty then asked him to permanently delete the photos.

He initially resisted the check, claiming content in his gallery are private and should not be seen by other persons.

The voting process has been smooth so far at the Odorkor Police Station with political parties expressing confidence that it will be peaceful and fair.

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