VOA标准英语2015--Nigerian Election Officials Try to Minimize Fraud

Nigerian Election Officials Try to Minimize Fraud

Each election cycle, Nigerian officials introduce new ways to ensure a clean vote. This year, everyone registered to cast a ballot¹ will carry a government-issued permanent voters card (PVC) with biometric data that includes an individual’s fingerprints². They will be processed by electronic card readers programmed to operate in a particular polling booth. 

The machines will confirm the identity of the voters, helping³ ensure that each person registered casts only one ballot.More than 130,000 card readers will be deployed⁴ throughout the country. 

Some opposition⁵ candidates have gone to court to ban the readers, saying they violate a 2010 law that prohibits certain types of voting technologies.

Oba Effanga, the governance program manager of Action Aid in Abuja, disagrees.

"The card reader is not used for voting directly,"  he explained. "It’s just to confirm that the person who turns up to vote actually is [the owner of the card]. What the electoral act prohibits is electronic voting to indicate [a voter’s] choice on the ballot. That [isn’t happening] in Nigeria, and I do notsee the use of the card reader as violating a provision of the Electoral Act."

Others say card readers made errors when used in elections in Ghana and Kenya. INEC says it has corrected those glitches⁶. And recent tests have revealed few problems.

Batteries

Still there are doubts. Clement⁷ Nwankwo, the executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center in Abuja, said "A major concern is that if the card readers are being operated by battery, how long will they last? If they only last a certain period of time and there’s no electricity in some areas, they can not be charged."

In past elections during power black-outs, INEC has allowed voters to cast ballots⁸ after bringing some form of identification and signing an affidavit⁹.

Nwankwo said those manually counting the votes at the polling booths will compare the number of ballots cast with the number of registered voters recorded by the card readers.

Cumbersome¹⁰ counting

Darren Kew is also concerned about the counting process. He’s an associate professor of conflict resolution at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and the director there of the Center for Peace, Democracy and Democratic Development.  He’s also monitored all of Nigeria’s democratic elections since 1999.

Kew said Nigeria’s system for collating¹¹ the votes is decentralized and unnecessarily complicated, leaving room for manipulation in previous elections. 

He said the vote tallies¹² from the polling booths are forwarded to collation¹⁴ centers at the ward¹³ level and later to the local level. From there, they go to state centers and finally to INEC at the federal level. At each point the votes are examined and counted.

Kew said past experience shows the vulnerabilities of the system:

"We’d follow [vote tallies presented] to the ward collation centers, and things usually look pretty good, but then the sun goes down," he explained. 

"International monitors for security reasons are usually not allowed to be out overnight and the local monitors [were] often prevented from getting in to the local government collation centers. That’s where we would see a lot of [numbers] change. The next morning when we [went] to observe [the counting] at the state level those numbers would change very surprisingly to us -- to an extent where we would see outcomes that did not seem to makes sense with what we saw the day before," said Kew. 

 Distribution problems

The elections were postponed¹⁵ from February 14 until March 28 because of insecurity in at least three northeastern states, and also because INEC had not finished distributing millions of voting cards.

In some cases, INEC says it has distributed the cards to local officials, though some voters are still waiting to receive them. Kew says he concerned there could be a reason for the delay.

"The problem with voting cards," he said, "is that INEC will release them but the voters themselves will not get them. There seems to be some evidence as in the past that these are being hoarded¹⁶ at the local government level."

He said if the cards are not distributed, the vote in some areas is effectively suppressed. In the past – they were distributed to others who voted fraudulently under someone else’s name. Or, they were used to indicate a high voter turnout to support high and fraudulent vote totals that were added on at the local government collation centers during the night. 

Independent or partisan¹⁷

Kew said the chair of the electoral commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, has worked to make the voting process more transparent¹⁸, and to curb¹⁹ potential abuse. Jega is an academic and also former labor²⁰ leader, not affiliated²¹ with any party. But Kew says that’s not true of other INEC commissioners²², or those on the state level. They are all appointed by the president.

"Professor Jega is surrounded by a lot of individuals – some of whom definitely have direct or indirect relationships to the ruling party and all of whom owe their seats to the president and may not show the same level of independence that Professor Jega has tried to show," said Kew.  "That creates a spectrum²³ of other opportunities if the ruling party decides it wants to try to shift the elections. It could turn to these individuals for assistance."

He said vote rigging may be more difficult this time around. 

He said the opposition is large enough to have monitors at the polls, while youth corps²⁴ volunteers have been recruited as polling station managers. Kew said they are part of a federal program made up of college graduates who are perceived to be idealistic, and less prone²⁵ to corruption²⁶.

Any complaints of cheating will be investigated by INEC, and if necessary, by the courts. They have overturned many legislative²⁷ and gubernatorial elections over the years because of rigging and other irregularities. 

General Buhari, who has run for president three times since 1999, has complained in prior elections to the courts about irregularities. They frequently ruled against him. And, they’ve said that alleged²⁸ levels of fraud were never enough on the national level to overturn a presidential election.

This time, he says, he’ll find some other way to press his case.

1 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

2 fingerprints   

n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
• They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 glitches   

n.小过失，差错( glitch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Manufacturing glitches have limited the factory's output. 生产中的故障影响了该厂的产量。 来自辞典例句
• Another kind of period variation,\"Glitches,\" are seen in several pulsars. 在几个脉冲星中还看到了周期的另一种变化，即“自转突快”现象。 来自辞典例句

7 clement   

adj.仁慈的；温和的

参考例句：

• A clement judge reduced his sentence.一位仁慈的法官为他减了刑。
• The planet's history contains many less stable and clement eras than the holocene.地球的历史包含着许多不如全新世稳定与温和的地质时期。

8 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 affidavit   

n.宣誓书

参考例句：

• I gave an affidavit to the judge about the accident I witnessed.我向法官提交了一份关于我目击的事故的证词。
• The affidavit was formally read to the court.书面证词正式向出席法庭的人宣读了。

10 cumbersome   

adj.笨重的，不便携带的

参考例句：

• Although the machine looks cumbersome,it is actually easy to use.尽管这台机器看上去很笨重，操作起来却很容易。
• The furniture is too cumbersome to move.家具太笨，搬起来很不方便。

11 collating   

v.校对( collate的现在分词 )；整理；核对；整理（文件或书等）

参考例句：

• An invalid collating element was specified in a [[. name. ]] block. 块中指定了非法的对照元素。 来自互联网
• Selected collating sequence not supported by the operating system. 操作系统不支持选择的排序序列。 来自互联网

12 tallies   

n.账( tally的名词复数 )；符合；（计数的）签；标签v.计算，清点( tally的第三人称单数 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合

参考例句：

• Cash on hand tallies with the figure in the accounts. 现款跟账上的数目没有出入。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He tallies his own marks. 他把自己的得分记了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

14 collation   

n.便餐；整理

参考例句：

• It was in this retreat that Mr. Quilp ordered a cold collation to be prepared.奎尔普先生就是在这个别墅里预定冷点的。
• I was quite taken with your line of photocopiers with collation and stapling capability.我被贵公司能够自动整理和装订的系列复印机吸引住了。

15 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

16 hoarded   

v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It owned great properties and often hoarded huge treasures. 它拥有庞大的财产，同时往往窖藏巨额的财宝。 来自辞典例句
• Sylvia among them, good-naturedly applaud so much long-hoarded treasure of useless knowing. 西尔维亚也在他们中间，为那些长期珍藏的无用知识，友好地、起劲地鼓掌。 来自互联网

17 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

18 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

19 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

20 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

21 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

22 commissioners   

n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官

参考例句：

• The Commissioners of Inland Revenue control British national taxes. 国家税收委员管理英国全国的税收。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The SEC has five commissioners who are appointed by the president. 证券交易委员会有５名委员，是由总统任命的。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

23 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

24 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

25 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

26 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

27 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

28 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为