Electronic voting, the ultimate, no going back to Egypt, says INEC boss

THOMAS IMONIKHE

A credible biometric register, biometric accreditation of voters and electronic transmission of results are among innovations put in place by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to facilitate the introduction of electronic voting in the near future.

The Chairman of the INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this Friday, during an interaction with members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Lagos, also gave assurance that the 2023 general election will be the best ever conducted in Nigeria, adding: “apart from being free, fair, transparent and credible, next year’s election will have an additional feature, it will be verifiable”.

The INEC boss, who responded to questions on the commission’s preparations, its budget, challenges, the roles of the electorate, political parties, politicians and the mass media among others, was emphatic that with the Electoral Act 2022 and the active participation of relevant stakeholders, every vote would count in next year’s general election.

Describing election as one of the most significant indicators of democracy, he argued that such exercise can’t be better than the environment it is conducted stressing however that democracy can’t flourish in the absence of good democrats.

He dismissed as falsehood recent claim by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) that the INEC register had been compromised, but wondered where the coalition got the so-called register of voters when the commission is still cleaning up the register and therefore not come up with any valid new voter register currently.

He disclosed  that no fewer than 95million voters had been captured in the INEC database, out of which over 10.4million are new registrants stressing that this number is huge compared to the number of registered voters in other countries in the ECOWAS sub-region. Heidentified the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, as a game changer.

Yakubu described the forthcoming Nigerian election as huge when compared to elections in other parts of Africa adding that no effort will be spared to make the collection of Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs by the registrants a pleasant experience. They will be reached through telephone or email, he added.

Speaking specifically on the voter population in Nigeria, the INEC boss revealed that it is higher than the cumulative number of voters in the other 14 countries that make up the Economic Community of West Africa States which stands at about 73 million, and over 11 million short of the number in the country for which 1.4million ad-hoc staff will be engaged to join hands with the permanent staff to conduct.

Responding to a question on the cost of elections in the country for which the sum of N305billion had been provided for the conduct of next year’s general election, he strongly defended the figure, adding that at a cost of $9 per voter, Nigeria does not rank among countries with the highest cost of election. The amount, he noted represent a paltry 1.8 per cent of the N17 trillion federal budget for 2021 describing the recent Kenya election as the most expensive in Africa.

He said he was totally opposed to possible introduction of election tax in the country, insisting that the cost of future elections would reduce with incremental public confidence in the electoral system while logistics and payment of personnel allowances account for  over 60 percent of election budget.

On the allegation by the CUPP that a suit had been filed secretly at Federal High Owerri to stop the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, in next year’s polls, Yakubu said INEC had not been served stressing however that should such case come up, the commission would respond appropriately.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, President of the NGE, Mr MustaphaIsah criticized the ugly trend of vote-buying, that was witnessed during the conduct of recent elections in the country, insisting that if not not checked, it has the capacity to undermine the credibility of the 2023 elections.

“Vote buying has become a threat to our democracy. The Guild sees it as one of the manifestations of the weaponization of poverty in the land.   Poverty could make some Nigerians to offer their votes for sale for a paltry sum, not minding the devastating consequences on good governance. Why do politicians buy votes now? The answer is simple. Votes are beginning to count due to the reforms introduced by INEC.

It’s obvious that Nigerians are now more confident in the electoral process. The registration of  10. 48 million new voters ahead of the 2023 polls is another testimony to this”, he noted.

According to him,  the confidence of Nigerians especially the voters in INEC  was greatly boosted with the recent conduct of the Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections where the people’s will prevailed even as he urged the commission to replicate the feat during next year’s general election.

“Nigerians want a repeat or  an  improvement in the 2023 polls. Please, don’t disappoint them.  I’m happy that the commission has maintained its position that electronic transmission of results has come to stay. The Guild is with you on this. We are prepared to fight any attempt to take Nigeria back to the dark days of writing election results in hotels and beer parlours. The people’s will must prevail at all times,” he stated.

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