In
what is apparently a justification of the call made months ago by serial
digital entrepreneur and Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, the Senate has
amended the Electoral Act of 2010 to legalise the use of smart card readers for
the authentication of accredited voters as was done in the 2015 general
election.
The
amendment to the Act will also pave the way for electronic voting in future
elections.
The
Senate also empowered the presiding officer at polling units to, in addition to
the smart card reader, use any other technological device that may be
prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from time to
time for the accreditation of voters to verify, confirm or authenticate the
genuineness or otherwise of voters’ card.
The
passage of the Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act 2010 and for other
related matters followed the consideration and adoption of the report of the
Senate Committee on INEC on Thursday. The bill, which passed its third reading,
also stipulates that votes and recorded results must be transmitted
electronically directly from polling units in an encrypted and secured form.
The
amendment provides that if for some reason the encrypted data is compromised,
the presiding officer would have to rely on the manual collation, which could
however be prone to manipulation. Where the encrypted data is safe, it
completely supersedes the manual results.
The
amendment is also offering a solution to the ambiguity that may occur in the
event a candidate dies after the commencement of elections and before the
declaration of a winner by INEC, as was the case during the Kogi gubernatorial
election.
As
far back as May 2016, Ekeh had declared that the time is ripe for Nigeria to deepen
its democratic culture through the full deployment of electronic voting during
elections.
He
had made the call while appearing as the keynote speaker at a retreat organized
by the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral and Political Parties
Matter held on Friday, May 27th 2016 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja where he disclosed
that with the rapid pace of technological advancements, Nigeria stands to reap
a lot of benefits from the deployment of e-voting, stressing that the
initiative will go a long way in reducing litigations and strengthening the
faith of Nigerians in the electoral process.
In
a paper titled - New thoughts, ideas and innovations on use of ICT in elections
- Ekeh affirmed that the gains recorded with the use of the card readers in the
2015 general elections goes a long way to show that with the adoption of
e-voting, the country will take a huge leap towards sound democratic
governance.
“The
country is ripe for transition to electronic voting. In your life, there must
be a little bit of disruption for you to move forward. With the use of the card
readers in the last general elections, we saw a significant reduction in
electoral fraud. However, a few challenges still existed as no technology can
be said to be 100% perfect.
“A
country cannot move forward where the elected leaders who take decisions are
not the choice of the people. It’s like running a company and you are a
shareholder in that company. If your son is not qualified to lead, you will be
destroying that company by manipulating the system to favour that son. So, this
was the essence of our submission to INEC on the adoption of electronic voting
– that things should be done professionally with your support and that of the
entire nation.
“Today,
there are about 774 local governments in the country and each one with about
10, 800 polling units, some of which are in the riverine areas. Even if INEC
purchases 1000 vehicles, it will still find it difficult logistics-wise to
cover all the areas and this leaves the process open to manipulation by
emergency contractors as INEC lacks the requisite man-power.
“If
finally adopted and implemented, electronic voting will ensure that you now
have reasonable infrastructure to handle this. While you have the mobile units
and active screens at the polling units, the database of registrants or
eligible voters is sitting at the national database of INEC.
“Once
a voter’s number is entered at the polling unit, it pulls up the details of the
voter from the list of registered voters. Verification will no longer be a
problem and during voting, once a voter clicks on the icon of a chosen party,
the same information hits the INEC back-end. This will go a long way in
reducing litigations as INEC can provide verifiable evidence in court.
“With
this technology in place, voters will no longer have to travel back to their
wards to cast their votes. Furthermore, INEC can also monitor the entire
process easily as each electronic voting device is equipped with a tracker and
can be configured to shut down immediately voting ends.”
Tracing
the country’s march and transition towards electronic voting, digital ICT
entrepreneur Ekeh had also examined the benefits and challenges of the Direct
Data Capture (DDC) machines used during the 2007 elections and the painstaking
process which eventually culminated in the use of the card readers for the 2015
general elections.
“When
Prof. Jega came on board, a decision was made to do a proper data capturing of
eligible voters. We started the process and I must thank the National Assembly
as they supported us despite being a local company.
“We
designed the technology and ended up working for everybody in deploying the
Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines nationwide including the 600 servers. These
helped promote the concept of one man, one voter card, streamlined the
electoral process and also reduced multiple registration, ineligible and
under-age registrants – we did a lot of these from the back-end. As a result,
we were able to deliver a strong database which reduced arguments and other
related issues.
“From
there, we moved to the use of card readers. Back then, there were calls for
proposals for electronic voting which the National Assembly to a large extent
didn’t consider as the country was seen as not ripe to embrace the technology
then. Most of the issues encountered with the card readers had to do with the
National Assembly and the budget for INEC as well as the late release of funds
after election dates had been set, among other disruptions. So, INEC had no
time to conduct a mock election using the card readers. I had recommended a
regional mock then as this would have helped smoothen the process.”
At
the retreat, Ekeh had equally seized the opportunity to urge the National
Assembly in the march to transit to e-voting, noting that it would go a long
way to foster a more progressive Nigeria.
“I
would like to plead with the National Assembly to support INEC in its effort to
adopt electronic voting. Until we embrace this disruption, the nation will not
move forward in this regard because the government is the decider of the future
of the people. If you appoint a CEO who cannot read a balance sheet, it’s
impossible for that company to grow. This is the crisis the country is
currently facing in the knowledge business,” he had concluded.
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