It lasted five hours. Party chiefs and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met for the fifth and final time before the general elections scheduled to commence on April 2. Arguably, the most contentious issue bordered on INEC's adoption of the modified open ballot system. Parties were sharply divided into two on its adoption or abandonment.

The opposing parties hinged their argument on the reason that the new voting system is cumbersome and time- wasting.

Going by the released guidelines, eligible voters are expected to be present for accreditation from 8am to 12 noon. Voting starts at 12:30pm and ends when the last person on the queue votes.

Citing the successful experiment in the Delta rerun and previous use in the 1993 elections, INEC said there was no going back on the new voting system.

"It is certainly a little bit cumbersome, but there is an in-built flexibility," INEC chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega said. "We have gone too far on this issue to change it.

"It was successful in 1993 because it was a two-party system. Today, we have 64 political parties contesting this election... if anything happens based on the experiment, I hope you (referring to Jega) will take full responsibility?" national chairman of the National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP), Chief Udemba Chukwudolue, said.

Championed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on one end and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on the other, parties were divided on the application of the modified open ballot system.

The PDP and its supporters favour a situation were voting takes place immediately after accreditation. The CPC favours sticking with the subsisting plan to conclude accreditation before actual voting takes place.

Reportedly, before yesterday's meeting, the PDP had convened a meeting at an undisclosed location in Abuja where it sought to solicit some political parties' support to push INEC to abandon the newly adopted voting method.

Also at the meeting yesterday, INEC chairman Jega yielded to the pressure from political parties to deploy electoral officers and possibly the resident electoral commissioners.

Jega had vehemently resisted agitations from political parties and other stakeholders to redeploy the EOs and RECs.

But yesterday he said, "We will carry out the necessary redeployment of staff before the election but we will also ensure that it is not disruptive."

Taking turns, INEC directors of operations, logistics, ICT and Legal departments made presentations on the commission's preparedness for the elections.

The commission reiterated its carpet ban on using party vehicles to move election materials. "We have banned that, we have provided resources," Jega said.

Said he: "We have procured 530 Hilux four-wheel drive vehicles which we have distributed. We are trying to procure an additional 100 before the elections. Our target is to ensure at least one four-wheel drive in each local government area.

"We have also procured 60 motorised boats which have been distributed to the riverine locations...we have a definite commitment from the air force to also help us airlift to places that can only be reached by air."

National chairman of the Labour Party (LP) Chief Dan Nwanyanwu tasked INEC on the non-use of the Direct Data Capture machines for accreditation.

"We are worried that if we introduce electronic accreditation somebody will go to court and challenge it saying it is electronic voting being introduced in another guise," the INEC chair countered.

Jega said the voter register that will be used for accreditation is electronically generated.

He disclosed that INEC was partnering the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to prosecute persons who double-registered. "We are working with the NBA so that, hopefully, in the next 10 days, before the commencement of the elections, many of those that we have caught for double registration will also be charged to court," the INEC boss stated.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has officially handed over the "Practice Direction Manual" to the Court of Appeal president, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, to aid the election petition tribunal judges in speedy delivery of judgement in electoral dispute adjudication.

The presentation of the document is coming after the UNDP's two-day training for the tribunal judges and secretaries on the new Electoral Act, electoral practice direction and some case studies.

Salami said the training has made clear some of the doubtful aspects of the Electoral Act 2010 to the newly appointed tribunal judges.

"With this training and the manual which is the first of its kind, I am confident that the judges are equipped and well- prepared for the electoral dispute adjudication. Before we came, there were areas of the Electoral Act we were not sure of, but all the doubtful areas were made clear during the training.

"If the foreigners could be so enthusiastic about the success of our election, think we should be prepared to do more than expected," Justice Salami added.

The UNDP resident representative, Mr. Daouda Toure said the manual is meant to aid the judges to make a quick reference so that electoral disputes are timely determined.

The manual, he said further contains cases, Electoral Act and constitutional provisions applicable to specific electoral disputes for easy reference.

Justice Salami however said that the manual would be made available to the public for the lawyers and would be litigants to make use of from time to time.

It would be recalled that a total of 210 Election Petition Tribunal Judges were sworn-in by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloyusius katsina Alu between Monday and Tuesday, this week.

Two tribunals each were however approved for the 36 states and FCT, which is a clear departure from the past.

But the tribunal shall adjudicate on all electoral cases within 180 days. In otherwords, electoral cases would no longer last for 3 to four years as witnessed in the post April 2007 election matters.