President Goodluck Jonathan has returned home without being accredited to vote in today’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

The first citizen had turned up at the polling booth in his ward in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, South-South, around 9:10 a.m. in the company of his wife Patience but left around 10am after the card readers failed approve them for accreditation.

Addressing newsmen before returning home, President Jonathan said he has called INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to report the failure of the card machine, not only in his ward but also in some other parts of the country. He, however, said he has taken the development in god faith as he is just one voter and is optimistic that the new technology would work after initial hitches.

Commenting on the issue, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Bayelsa described the development as regrettable.

It is not yet clear if President Jonathan will return for accreditation.

Meanwhile, reports from Daura, Katsina State in the North-West, have it that Jonathan’s main challenger, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and his wife Aisha were successfully accredited to vote in the election.

Incidentally, Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), had made a strong case for the use of the card reader while Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expressed strong reservations about it, saying it had not been sufficiently tested.

•Photo shows Jonathan.