ELECTIONS, INTEGRITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Integrity of elections in the developed world is increasingly being questioned, contends Dayo Sobowale 

Nigeria’s presidential elections have finally been concluded legally and constitutionally with the Supreme Court declaring the elected president democratically the winner as announced earlier by election conductor and regulator,  INEC.  I want to compare this electoral conclusion with the way the US is preparing for its next presidential election in 2024 and how the ruling party that lost the recent general election in Poland is questioning the integrity of that   election.  I look at these election issues with Artificial intelligence in mind in the context of what Elon Musk said this week that if those championing the cause of  climate change today  get control  of the technology of artificial  intelligence in future then they will  destroy humanity .

Let me first of all make initial observations on my fascination with events I have chosen for this analysis on a one by one basis . First is the culmination in the courts of Nigeria’s electoral process for which I cannot hide my excitement at two deeply profound legal observations , first at  the  Appeal  Court and later the Supreme Court . A  female judge in the Appeal  Court famously  lamented that the court cannot gather  evidence from  the streets for the appellants while the sonorous voice of erudition in the  apex court affirmed that  litigation must come to an end.

In Poland where the ruling party is largely Catholic and conservative it  is raising doubts about the recent election it lost to parties favourable  to gay rights and  same- sex  marriage which  the  majority in the 28 – member EU institution regard  as modern European values . In the US,  —  the  prosecution of Donald Trump , who lost the 2020  presidential election to incumbent  President Joe Biden  —    for  many  offences including insurrection on Jan 6  2021 by  his supporters , many  of whom have been given stiff  prison terms  —  is looming  ominously over the coming 2024 presidential  election . Trump has claimed the 2020  election was rigged and stolen and judging his popularity his supporters simply believe his version of the  truth  and see him as a political martyr  they are ready and desperate to return to office as president in 2024 .

Elon Musk linking of artificial intelligence future control with present climate agitation and protests blaming present humanity for global warming and the destruction of the earth,  is both political and  futuristic and parties that  have won elections on the green mandate  are jittery on its ideological and electoral  consequences in future  elections . It is ironic that Musk had warned before that if AI , if not well handled , and if it gets to the wrong hand  may destroy mankind. Now making climate champions like the Democratic Party in power in the US likely to be the catalysts  for this looming danger is going to affect  significantly  the ability of the party to lead in future if not the immediate present, especially 2024 . In Germany already the Green party in the coalition government has become a liability to the senior coalition partner  as it is seen as driving government supporters into conservative, anti-immigration  parties and support groups .

It is necessary now to go into the nitty gritty of my choice of topic for today and I go back to Nigeria’s  presidential elections now settled in the courts . It has been a long and tortuous journey for the elected president to obtain legitimacy and real authority which the appeal cases denied him legally till his election was given legal integrity by the courts .  He has shown magnanimity in his reaction to the Supreme Court judgement and that has been easy for a political juggernaut whose main political ammunition has been to build bridges across the multiethnic vast  cultural divide of the nation . The fact that CAN which soured on the Muslim-Muslim ticket has congratulated him  on his  appointments showed the versatility of his now well –  identified, impulsive decision making instincts .  He can now focus on running the nation and getting it out  of the quagmire of  the expected consequences of  the  sudden fuel subsidy removal  at his inauguration .

The loss  of power  by Poland’s ruling party and its questioning of the integrity of the election  is strange  in Poland if  not the  entire  EU . Accusation of rigging is peculiar to developing nations like Nigeria and that was very much on display at the last election. It is  a novelty  in Europe and was not raised when an anti- immigration PM came into power against all odds recently in Italy and even Hungary . The reason for the loss of power by the ruling  party may be due to the organizational skills of a former EU president  who came home to campaign to eject the ruling party and whose tactics have bred suspicion on electoral  integrity by the  loser in power in Poland till now .

In   past US election , integrity was not questioned till Trump came to  power and that  concept became an endangered species first in the 2016 presidential election campaign when Trump claimed he would not accept the election results because he alleged it will  be rigged , not knowing he would win .  Now those who support him on saying the 2020  election was rigged are being portrayed as election deniers but certainly rigging has taken an important position in US politics today whether Americans like it or not .

 With regard to Elon Musk’s observation on Climate change   and AI , some have gone further to agree with him that our world is too focused on the future of the planet while ignoring present  humanly costly  dangers ,  like poverty and the urgent need  for improvement of the quality of life globally . Musk’s danger signal might very well be the needed red flag to make Climate champions realize that to get to the  future at all , we  need to  learn  to  live well and safely in the present .

Sobowale is a news analyst with Arise News