2023: It’s Time to Embrace e-Voting

For a credible and acceptable election in 2023, e-voting is imperative, writes Shola Oyeyipo

In any democracy, the election is the most important factor since it is only through the exercise that the assertion ‘government of the people’ can be legitimised, when the electorate endorse leadership succession through their votes. It is also the best way to evaluate the performance of elected officers in the context of their electoral promises since those who fail to keep their promises are easily voted out of office. But in Nigeria, this has not been so, and the reason is not far-fetched: politicians have perfected ways to boycott the electorate by engaging in electoral malpractices.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, Nigeria has had national elections in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015and 2019, but the quest for free, fair, and credible election has subsisted, because many Nigerians are of the view that these elections are not fit for democratic governance, hence successive chairmen of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), have made frantic efforts at improving the quality of elections, yet, no one can boast that even the more recent elections can withstand the test of standard elections in more advanced democracies.

Though the measure was originally targeted at ensuring that people could keep the six feet social distance to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic, but optimists are already celebrating the idea in the sense that it can produce a more secure election despite the growing insecurity.

However, as part of efforts to improve the Nigerian electoral system and ensure that voting results reflect the wish and aspiration of the electorate, the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, is tinkering with the idea of introducing e-voting in Nigeria. He affirmed the commission’s readiness to migrate to e-voting to lawmakers in the lower chamber of the National Assembly during his 2021 budget proposal. In fact, the INEC boss hinted at the possibility of adopting e-voting for the upcoming 2021 governorship election in Anambra State.

Electronic voting is an election system that allows voters to record a secret ballot electronically and the result too can be tabulated electronically through the computer. Votes are safely stored and can be re-counted in case there is a need. This voting method has gained prominence since the 1990s and early 2000s around the world.
Undoubtedly, the introduction of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the Smart Card Readers (SCRs) by Yakubu’s predecessor, Professor Attahiru Jega for the 2015 election created some degree of sanity in the system, but many Nigerians are optimistic that with e-voting added to the mix, the country may be entering to a realm of sustainable credible elections.

Though it is not yet clear how much support the INEC boss will be getting from politicians in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), because the political class is the main beneficiaries of the fraudulent electoral system, already, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is tasking the Nigerian electoral umpire to transmit the 2023 election electronically, saying the body has no excuse to do otherwise.

Calling for a transparent online voters’ registration and online transmission of results, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a recent press statement said: “The party’s position is predicated on INEC’s announcement of its readiness to conduct online (electronic) registration of voters for future elections in the country.”

He stressed that, “Our party calls the attention of the commission to the fact that it no longer has any excuse not to employ the direct transmission of results from polling units, which will ensure credible elections by eliminating manipulations, alterations, switching, and disappearance of election results during manual collation processes.”

PDP argued that if INEC could use the electronic platform for the registration of voters, it could as well deploy the same technology for electronic transmission of results in future elections, including the 2023 general election.
Toeing the party line, the Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, also enjoined INEC to use e-voting to avoid conflicts during elections, saying the absence of e-voting has denied many electorate their franchise.

“I am an advocate and supporter of electronic voting. Many Nigerians have been denied the right to vote, because they are not in Nigeria and cannot participate in choosing their leaders. It is a challenge to Nigeria. Let INEC be challenged. If the Ijaw can do it, the federal government can also do it,” Diri said in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Alabrah.

Cut to the bone, there are many advantages in the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, which INEC proposes to adopt. The 21 inch ultra-high-resolution touch screen voting system offers a contest-by-contest and allows multiple contest (one contest per page) display of ballots and a cut-and-drop paper record printer for voters to verify their selections. It displays contests page by page, showing parties per page during the voting process. Specific contests may be expanded into larger font on demand by each voter and it comes with alternate languages to English like Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba and all other known languages spoken in Nigeria.

It provides accessibility to blind voters and others with physical disabilities using voice assistance, eliminates unintentional undervotes requiring a positive confirmation of any undervote by voters, eases voting, eases vote tabulation and counting. It prevents fraud and all forms of manipulations that usually characterise the Nigerian election. It reduces the cost of conducting the election, though at first, the cost of transmitting to digital might be high.

Generally, it is expected to drive considerable change in the nation’s body polity, especially, when the people begin to see that their votes count, hence it drives participation and compels elected officials to perform better since they are aware that their re-election would depend on the electorate and not rigged election.

E-voting will particularly help Nigeria curb electoral violence. Usually, politicians often engage the service of hoodlums to unleash mayhem during elections, when they are sure they are on the losing side. This will make INEC cancel the ballot and eventually declare the election inconclusive but when the process is digitalised, it is a disincentive for violent obstruction of the voting process.

There are, however, concerns about the security of e-voting for fear that hackers might choose to compromise the system if it’s internet-based. The only setback for e-voting among Nigerians is the suspicion that someone could illegally get into the election database and alter the results of an election, which could be done either through physical tampering or a remote attack over the internet. But stand-alone balloting machine at the polling station not connected to the internet or any local area network cannot be hacked.

Fact is, despite concerns about e-voting, manufacturing companies are still developing the machines and countries have increasingly continued to purchase and deploy them. Therefore, fully implementing an e-voting system in Nigeria would not only save the country from disgraceful elections of the past, but also guarantees free, fair, transparent, convenient, credible and confidential elections. What more, it would also ensure that results are speedily processed.