Elections are a spectacular, exciting and momentous occasions in a democracy. Those who seek public offices, usually under a political party, present themselves for consideration and preference before the electorate. In the rituals of periodic elections, electors exercise the privilege of scrutinizing such candidates. It is to exclusive authority of democracy that candidates submit themselves to the sovereignty of the people who determine those to exercise political authority on their behalf. Whereas the electorate should be solely entrusted with choice making in the process, there are candidates that do not possess the confidence to allow a credible process. And so, an independent commission to discharge the electoral duty is provided for in the constitution.
In furtherance of its constitutional responsibility, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that it has commenced replacing manual voting with automated voting system as part of efforts to migrate fully to electronic voting as soon as enabling legislation is put in place. The Commission has moved another step further towards full automation of the electoral process. This is commendable as a demonstration of the commission towards institutionalization of democratic process. And it could not have come at a better time than now that the cost of election is getting more expensive when public funds are dwindling and costs of governance are even getting more expensive.
As part of benefits to derive from e-voting, we expect that there would be reduction in the population of personnel; their movement and safety. Having disclosed that the INEC register of voters is the largest database of citizens in Nigeria. the combination of biometric voters’ cards otherwise known as Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) and the Smart Card Reader (SCR) has revolutionized accreditation of voters during elections.
It is our expectation in The Hope that these steps will minimize election fraud and vote trading. We are not unmindful of the challenges posed by illiteracy which is widespread. Rather than allowing unscrupulous politicians to exploit the electorate the more, we implore the INEC to embark on aggressive voter education to make a success of the scheme. Similarly, provision of essential infrastructure to improve quality of social life would no doubt help the delivery of an improved electoral system. It goes without saying that power supply for a functional economic sector and to the community can only make the onerous task of an efficient, credible and transparent electoral system easier to deliver.
Much more, an orderly political party system, featuring a manageable number of political parties should be the ultimate desire of the political elite which seems to undermine the political process through unpatriotic actions of sabotage. A constitutional provision for a two-party system will most likely clear the tendency to lay ambush for the electoral commission for selfish, unpatriotic objectives.
Illiteracy is a major nut to crack in a bid to deliver free and fair elections. There should be immediate literacy programme to meet UNESCO standard for the overall good of our system.
It is cheering that the Independent National Electoral Commission has been working on ‘deployment of technology in voting during elections to replace the current manual system which is tedious and requires enormous logistics to deliver huge quantities of printed materials and a large number of ad-hoc staff to administer the process’, but much more would be achieved only when the political class realizes that it cannot be allowed to hold the country and her people to the jugular, out of desperation. The ruling class must be told that it cannot be allowed to manipulate economic fora to the detriment of citizens simply for dastardly purposes. Reforms must be total, individual, corporate and nationalist to save the electoral and political soul of Nigeria. it must go beyond electronic voting and percolate the psyche of the citizens.
As a starting point, all hands must be on deck to ensure that INEC make a success of its electoral assignment through this bold step of technology.