The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has jettisoned e-voting for the 2015 general elections. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines its implications for the nation’s electoral process.
When the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, disclosed that e-voting would not be feasible in 2015, many Nigerians expressed surprise. In March, last year, he had raised their hope about the proposed voting system. They felt that the electronic method would bring relief in the next general elections.
Since 1964, elections have been problematic. Ballot boxes have often developed wings and losers declared winners by the electoral commission. When those boxes resurface at the counting centres, they are stuffed with multiple thumb-printed ballot papers.
Nigeria’s quest for electronic voting started in the Second Republic when the Chairman of the defunct Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), the late Justice Victor Ovie-Whiskey, mooted the idea for the 1983 elections. The move was opposed by the leader of the defuct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who threatened to mobilise his supporters to smash the machines.
In 2006, when former INEC Chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu proposed the method for the 2007 elections, it was greeted with criticism. The pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, rejected the method, saying that the country was not ripe for it. The organisation cited low literacy level and lack of time to ascertain its worth and workability. Besides, it alleged that Iwu had a hidden agenda. Afenifere described e-voting under him as another electronic rigging mechanism.
Constitutional hurdle on e-voting
Jega had cited constitutional hurdle against e-voting in 2015. He said that the National Assembly is yet to amend the aspect of the electoral law that prohibits electronic voting system. But why did the National Assembly fail to review Section 52 (2) of the Electoral Law, as demanded by INEC?
Senator Aloy Etuk from Akwa Ibom State said the National Assembly is not afraid of electronic voting. “INEC has to convince the National Assembly of its readiness to go electronic. You can’t just wake up one a day and say you want to introduce e-voting. For instance, INEC must have acquired machines it wants to use up to date and put in place all necessary infrastructure that would make it work”, he said.
A political scientist, Professor Abubakar Momoh, is not disturbed by the National Assembly’s failure to amend the law. He said the permanent voter’s register, which the INEC is working on, would be embedded in the electronic chips on cards to curb electoral mal-practices.
Momoh explained that each card would carry the information about the voter, his or her biometric data, finger prints and photograph. The system, he added, would have authentic verification of voters at the polling unit. “There will be card readers that will automatically verify whether you are the genuine owner of the card or not”, he said.
The political scientist pointed out that the upgraded the voter register would prevent multiple voting or impersonation. Since the buying of voter’s card is not possible, multiple voting will be easily detected, Momoh said.
“What the INEC has put in place is enough to apprehend those who want to breach electoral rules at the polling centres. The sophistication of the new system is unknown to politicians who may want to cheat to win election. Whoever that makes any attempt to cheat at the polling centres would be caught, prosecuted and jailed, if found guilty by the court.”
Etuk, who agreed with Momoh, said that the National Assembly will support any system that will guarantee fairness, transparency and ensure that every vote counts.
“All we need is the assurance of its effectiveness. One has taken cognisance of what happened in the United States, where the adoption of e-voting generated controversy at a time in California. Consequently, it was put on hold for a season. The government had harsh words for the voting machine makers.
“If America is scared and cautious, it is advisable that we should do our homework very well, so that we don’t end up importing abandoned and outdated technology and flood the polling boots with them. We must understand the working processes of the machines”, Etuk advised.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Interim Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said the manual voting is old-fashioned. He said the method would significantly reduce the huge cost of elections, improve stability and end the atmosphere of war associated with elections.
Another advantage identified by the APC chieftain is that the involvement of security agencies in elections would be de-emphasised. He called on the National Assembly to amend Section 52 (2) of the Electoral Act, which outlaws e-voting.
Prospects of electronic voting
A software engineer, Adenrele Adebowale, said that electronic voting, if properly administered, is likely to improve the credibility of the elections, de-emphasise the militarisation of polls and increase transparency. He said that, since e-voting gives little or no room for manipulation during the voting, its adoption would reform and clean up the process.
Adebowale said the voting system saves cost, increases participation by citizens and eliminates human error in vote-count, adding that recounting is eliminated.
However, the challenge is the infrastructure. The country lacks the machines and software required for the functioning of the e-voting. A social critic, Bernard Briggs, said that this challenge should be resolved.
“We do not have sufficient IT infrastructure as everything is being run by paper and file system. In Nigeria, we are not particularly known for our skills in technology and as a result, the electoral commission employees will have to learn how to operate the machines. With the intractable challenge in electricity supply and the poor Information Technology skills of the majority of our population, the 2015 elections may end up being badly muddled up.
“ The electronic data capturing machines frequently ran out of power and those who wanted to register had to make repeated visits to the registration centres before they could get registered. This would not be tenable in an election situation”, he added.
But the President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Alhaji Mustafa Shehu, said it is possible for the INEC use electronic voting in two year’s time. He said that the engineers should take up the challenge.
The NSE boss recalled how the organisation successfully used e-voting for the election of its officers last year. He said the soft word used was developed by local engineers.
Shehu said the system would produce credible result that would confer legitimacy on the government and make the elected leaders to be more accountable to the people.
How it works
Electronic voting is any voting process where an electronic means is used for vote casting and result counting. For example, the NIGCOMSAT RFID biometric e-voting system is a contact-less card system, which presents a novel methodology for an off-line and always-available system that is suitable for developing countries.
Its peculiar features include an inherent voter authentication and on-the-spot check of multiple voting without reliance on external communication link or backend database queries as the process are localised ,using the voter card as a local and mobile database.
According to enginers, the system allows for quick and accurate voting electronically. It uses a client or server architecture which allows voters to cast ballots on the client terminal. Each client interfaces with the server, which keeps track of the entire system. The process involves registration, verification, authentication, voting and tallying’
The intended voter has a registered smartcard with his orher bio-data, fingerprint and photograph printed on it. A database is also accessible to an electoral official, local and internal observer, and the public by visiting the domain site of the electoral body. The smartcard automatically becomes invalid, once a vote is cast and the voter is given a receipt or counterfoil of whom he voted for, time of vote and where the vote was cast.
With the e-voting system, results are available promptly on the internet. Observers and voters can also view the ‘real-time’ of the election results from their homes, offices or anywhere in the world, using the web-enabled devices, including the PC, laptops, phones or iPAD, by simply logging into the designated website.
Another benefit of the e-voting system is the speed in which results can be obtained because results are accurately tabulated instantaneously. It reduces the risk of human and mechanical error and movement restriction. It brings electoral fraud to the barest minimum as it will eliminate multiple registrations and upholds “one man one vote” paradigm.
Countries where it works
Electronic voting was introduced in Brazil in 1996. The primary goal of the Brazilian voting machine is extreme simplicity, the model being a public phone booth. The voting system was widely accepted, due to the fact that it sped up the vote-count. For example, in the 1989 presidential elections between Fernado Collor de Mello and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the vote count lasted nine days. But in the 2002 general elections, the count required less than 12 hours. In rural areas, the election results were known minutes after the closing of the ballots.
It was introduced in Belgium in 1991. Two locations were chosen to experiment on different electronic voting systems. One of the systems tested was based on a touch panel similar to those used in the Netherlands. The other system still in use is based on a magnetic card and a voting machine with a light pen.
