Conducting elections in Nigeria is as good as fighting a war. In collusion with electoral officials and security agents, politicians subvert the process. Thus, the wish of the electorate, a critical element of democracy, is often supplanted by a tiny band of crooked politicians. Therefore, the proposal by the Independent National Electoral Commission to deploy new technology ahead of the 2019 polls is timely. It could be a watershed in Nigeria’s complex election management.
Essentially, INEC wants to build on the limited introduction of technology in the 2015 general election. For the first time ever, two landmark devices – the Permanent Voter Card and the Smart Card Reader – were used in the elections. These devices were critical in authenticating voters and checking over-inflation of votes. The PVC and SCR constrained politicians from writing just any figure they needed to win an election. Many countries – even in Africa – are improving their electoral process with technology. So there is no reason why Nigeria should remain stuck in the Dark Ages. In 2014, Namibia legalised electronic-voting.
“While strengthening the Card Reader and the PVCs … as we approach 2019, we shall move an inch higher by introducing technology in the process of collation and transmission of results so that the process will be faster and more accurate,” INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had told a gathering of political parties, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, insisting that there was no going back on the use of technology. We support this line of action.
Technology is not only being used for elections in different parts of the world, it is being regularly upgraded as nations grapple with an ever changing world. New technology is critical in moving our electoral system forward. Even with the deployment of PVCs and SCRs, a high number of elections from the 2015 exercise were subjects of litigation. Accordingly, INEC has been saddled with 80 rerun elections from the 2015 polls that were overturned by the courts because of rigging. This is a throwback to our unedifying past, which has caused no small national upheaval as witnessed just before the 1966 coup, the 1983 coup, the 1993 presidential poll result annulment and the 2007 fiasco.
In all, there are scheduled rerun elections in 16 states. In Rivers State, where violence and killings were widespread, rerun elections are to hold in the three senatorial zones, 12 federal constituencies and for 22 state assembly seats.
There is a raging debate in the polity about the governorship election in Taraba, Rivers, Abia and Akwa Ibom states, which were overturned and fresh polls ordered by election petitions tribunals and the Court of Appeal, but were reversed at the Supreme Court. Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states presented peculiarly different realities. Although cases of over-voting, rigging and other malpractices were allegedly discovered in these states, the Supreme Court argued otherwise, saying that the use of the card reader was not the sole basis for conducting the election. This is a quandary. In the light of this, Section 52 (2) of the Electoral Act 2010, which says, “The use of electronic voting machine for the time being is prohibited,” has to be expunged from the statutes to accommodate e-voting.
The growing practice in some countries, which have amended their electoral laws to accommodate deployment of technology, is a useful guide. For instance, e-voting was legalised in Estonia in 2003 after a short debate. In 2005, Estonia took a giant step by making internet voting legally binding in national elections. So, the plan by INEC is a step in the right direction that must be implemented.
A credible election is a sine qua non for good governance. And, there are many advantages that technology brings to the table, which Nigeria might benefit from, as it is capable of motivating the populace. Because of e-voting, the proportion of voters in Estonia rose progressively from 5.5 per cent in 2007 to 24.3 per cent in 2011, and 30.5 per cent in 2015.
A report in Britain by a pressure group, WebRoots Democracy, found that the introduction of online voting could boost voter turnout in the United Kingdom by nine million people, and save taxpayers £12.8 million per general election. “It (e-voting) can significantly reduce the number of accidentally spoilt ballots, speeding up the counting process, and enable vision-impaired voters to cast a secret ballot,” the report said. India, with 800 million voters, uses the portable and durable electronic voting machines. EVMs are also in use in the United States, Nepal and Bhutan.
Timing is critical. INEC has to initiate the necessary amendments to the Electoral Act that will repeal the provisions that inhibit the use of technology. The next nationwide polls are just three years away. Early preparations are crucial in order to avoid the 2015 situation, in which the polls were postponed at the 11th hour over the non-readiness of PVCs and other logistics. To test its system, Switzerland has conducted over 150 e-voting trials since adopting e-voting in 2000.
Fortunately, INEC has a good platform to prove the new technology. Governorship elections come up at different times this year in Ondo and Edo states, while some other states will follow suit before the 2019 general election. By now, it should be possible for voters to be accredited and vote simultaneously. But the technology should be perfected in the forthcoming polls in order for INEC to convince the nation of its readiness for the big task in 2019.
