New Telegraph

E-transmission of election results: Still a long wait

NASS dashes hope of e-transmission of election results

 

FELIX NWANERI writes on the National Assembly’s rejection of the proposal for electronic transmission of election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which many believe will boost the confidence of voters in the electoral process as well as make the peoples votes count

Nigeria conducts general elections every four years to determine those to take over the helm of affairs at the various levels of government. Regrettably, the electorate have always displayed lack of enthusiasm in the process due to the fact that such polls are always marred by gross irregularities as well as lack of credibility.

 

It is against this backdrop that some political stakeholders have over the years, clamoured for adoption of modern techniques, especially the electronic voting system to improve the nation’s electoral process.

 

Those in support of the electronic voting system insist that owing to the several challenges of conducting elections in a country with a population of over 200 million people, out of which are over 84 million registered voters spread across 120,000 polling centres, it was time to jettison the manual voting system that is cumbersome.

It was further advanced that given the towering number of political parties, which makes it difficult to source and procure balloting instruments, recruit and train personnel, transport and move men and thousands of tons of election materials across varied and often tough terrains over a relatively short time, electronic voting will provide a more secured and reliable process that will ensure that the peoples’ votes count.

Reference was made to the introduction of the Direct Data Capturing Machines (DDC) in Nigeria’s voters’ registration exercise, which has assisted in drastically reducing multiple registrations that is the starting point in election rigging.

 

Despite the belief that the electronic voting system will not only moderate the level of human interaction with the electoral process but diminish malpractices and errors, Section 52 (1) (b) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) outlaws electronic voting in Nigeria.

 

The section states that “the use of the electronic voting machine, for the time being, is prohibited.”

 

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which seemed to be disposed to adopting the electronic voting method, began the push with its clamour for the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act to be amended to make provision for electronic collation and transmission of election results.

The commission’s chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had during the inauguration of the House of Representatives

Special Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of 1999 Constitution in October last year, said: “We have to also address our electoral process, which is manual. It is too expensive and cumbersome.”

He added: “The process of collating result is sometimes chaotic because the law says that you must write results manually and collate them manually right from the polling unit to the ward, from the ward to the local government, then the state and from the state to the national level in the case of the presidential election.

A lot has been achieved abroad with a simple application of technology. So, the encumbrances to the deployment of technology in the transmission of election results should be removed as part of this process.”

How electronic voting works

Electronic voting also known as e-voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting. It embraces both electronic means of casting votes and counting them, which includes punched cards, optical scan voting systems and specialised voting kiosks (self-contained Direct-Recording Electronic voting systems – DRE) or transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet.

 

Specifically, two main types of e-voting can be identified – e-voting which is physically supervised by independent electoral authorities (electronic voting machines located at polling stations) and remote e-voting where voting is performed within the voter’s sole influence and is not physically supervised (voting from one’s personal computer, mobile phone, television or the internet).

Findings by New Telegraph show that the system has been in use since the 1960s when punched card systems debuted.

Their first widespread use was in the United States (U.S.) where seven counties switched to it for the 1964 presidential election. However, the new optical scan voting system allows a computer to count a voter’s mark on a ballot.

 

The DRE voting machines, which collect and tabulate votes in a single machine is used by all voters in all elections in Brazil and India, and also on a large scale in Venezuela and the U.S.

They have also been used on a large scale in the Netherlands, but have been decommissioned after public concerns.

 

The internet voting system on the other hand, has gained popularity and has been used for elections and referendums in the United Kingdom, Estonia and Switzerland as well as municipal elections in Canada and party primary elections in the U.S. and France.

 

While many believe that deploying biometrics to achieve accuracy will help curb electoral frauds such as multiple voting and ballot stuffing, which among others, have remained the bane of Nigeria’s electoral process, some stakeholders argue that e-voting would be hard to realise given the high level of illiteracy in the country as well as the deficiency of relevant infrastructural requirements to drive it.

 

Some political analysts even cited an example with the U.S., where it has been contended that electronic voting, especially DRE voting, facilitates electoral fraud. Against this backdrop, they were unanimous that while e-voting has proved effective in other climes, it should only be supported in Nigeria if there is an assurance that the system would not be manipulated by the country’s election managers.

 

The fears over e-voting as espoused by its antagonists, notwithstanding, some political stakeholders, were of the view that it is the way to go.as it will provide a more secured and reliable system that will makes votes count.

 

The consensus is that the electronic nature of the system moderates the level of human interaction with it, thus diminishing its disposition to election malpractices and errors as the fool-proof and adaptable technology can instantaneously give collated results if communication links are provided to all polling units from the local, state to national level.

 

It was further reasoned that because the system is biometric based, there is no possibility of multiple voting and impersonation even as invalid votes as a result of ink smear in the traditional voting system, which has characterised recent polls would be eliminated, while real-time online view of results of votes cast makes it more transparent.

 

Other listed benefits of electronic voting were elimination of bulk paper work and the possibility of the electorate, casting their ballot from any part of the country for the candidate of their choice, thereby eliminating the risk, cost and stress of traveling from one place to the other to either register or to vote.

 

The most significant of the merits, according to those in support of the system, is that Nigerians in diaspora can also vote irrespective of their geographic location.

 

NASS dashes hope of technology deployment

 

It was against this backdrop that expectation was high last week, when both chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – considered the report of their respective committees on the amendment of the Electoral Act.

 

But to the chagrin of most Nigerians, despite the envisaged merits of the electronic voting system, what would have marked the beginning of Nigeria’s journey to adoption of technology to enhance its electoral process was dashed penultimate week as the National Assembly voted against electronic transmission of election results.

 

In the Senate, senators of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) extraction voted against electronic transmission of election results in the forthcoming general election, while their counterparts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) voted in favour. Members of the All Progressives Congress in the Senate on Thursday voted against electronic transmission of results.

 

The Senate ad hoc committee on constitution review, had in its report, recommended in Section 52(3) that INEC “may transmit results of elections by electronic means where and when practicable.”

 

But an APC senator from Niger North, Sabi Abdullahi, amended the clause to read: “INEC may consider electronic collation of results, provided the national network coverage is adjudged to be adequate and secured by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and approved by the National Assembly.”

 

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, ruled in favour of the amendment when he conducted a voice vote but disagreement ensued and the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, called for a division, which would require individual voting on the floor.

 

Out of the 88, who were available to vote, 52 of APC extraction, voted against the panel’s report, while 28 of PDP extraction voted in favour. Twentyeight of the senators were absent from plenary. The APC senators hinged their position to the claim by the NCC that only 43 per cent of the country has network coverage.

 

The PDP senators, on the other hand, said allowing the NCC and the National Assembly to meddle in the affairs of INEC will affect the integrity of election.

 

The House of Representatives also turned down electronic transmission of election results despite protests by members of PDP extraction who staged a walk-out.

 

The House maintained the controversial Clause 52(2) as presented. The clause gives INEC the discretion to determine when, where and how voting and transmission of results would be done. However, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, who addressed his colleagues at the end of the exercise, said the House was not against electronic transmission of results but interested in ensuring votes are protected.

 

His words: “We all want electronic transmission of result, but based on the information from experts, it is not as easy as it sounds. We must get our electoral process right and when the right is right, we can come back and amend the law. We don’t want to disenfranchise anybody.

 

“We have consistently said that every vote must count. It is not about 10 or 20 per cent coverage or even 90 per cent. If one person’s vote is not counted, it will defeat what we have said on this floor that every vote must count.”

 

Condemnation trails NASS position

 

As expected, condemnation has trailed the lawmakers’ rejection of the proposal that would have empowered INEC to transmit election results from the various polling units.

 

The national leadership of the PDP, through the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the PDP and indeed majority of Nigerians were shocked over the decision of the Senate rejecting the demand by Nigerians across board for the electronic transmission of election results without conditionalities.

 

The decision, according to him, amounts to undermining Nigeria’s electoral process. He added that action of the APC senators was an “atrocious assault on the sensibilities of Nigerians, who looked up to the Senate for improvement in our electoral process in a manner that would engender free, fair and credible process.”

 

He further described the action of the senators was a direct affront and a defilement of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which clearly conferred operational independence to INEC to conduct elections, free from interferences and regulations from any other agency of government.

 

“The decision of the APC Senators therefore amounts to a suspension of the 1999 constitution (as amended) which is a recipe for crisis that could derail our democracy and destabilize our nation.”

 

Similarly, the umbrella body of registered politics in Nigeria, Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), not only berated the federal legislators for their action but urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to sign into law the Electoral Act 2010 amendment, when transmitted to him by the National Assembly.

The CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, who spoke on behalf of the group, said “withholding assent will be the only proof that Mr. President is not part of the conspiracy to undermine the country’s electoral process.”

 

He added: “We are yet to come out of the shock of the activities of the APC dominated National Assembly, filled with lawmakers who have now clearly towed the path of undermining our electoral process by rejecting the demands of Nigerians across board for electronic transmission of election results even when INEC has effectively tested the electronic transmission of election results at both Edo and Ondo states governorship elections.

 

“All Nigerians who hoped that the National Assembly, especially the Senate, would vote for an improvement in the country’s electoral process in a manner that will lead to freer, fairer and more credible process for the sake of good governance and the rule of law.

 

“It is unimaginable that a Nigerian lawmaker would vote for a statutory function of INEC to be approved by the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), a federal government agency under the full control of the executive. No political party will forever remain in power.”

A chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Chekwas Okorie, who spoke with New Telegraph on the issue, described the legislators’ votes against electronic transmission of election results from the polling units as not only shocking but undemocratic.

 

His words: “I think that what members of the National Assembly did by rejecting electronic transmission of election results is shocking to many of us. It is unexpected that people, who would have stood for the strengthening of our electoral process, rather chose to oppose what would have addressed electoral malpractices associated with our elections.

 

“We have seen INEC testrun electronic transmission of election results and it worked perfectly. So, what the National Assembly set out to do by subjecting INEC to the supervision of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as well as itself, ridiculed what it stands for because the lawmakers are interested parties as they will be seeking reelection in 2023.

 

“However, there is a breath of comfort because INEC is ready to stand by the provisions of the constitution, which guarantees its independence as any law that is not in line with that is null and void.

 

So, what I expect the National Assembly to do now is to reconsider the toxic clause and expunge it from the Electoral Act.

 

“Also, I expect the that President who has benefited from the use of technology in our electoral process not only to withhold his assent but to weigh in since he enjoys a cordial working relationship with the legislators and get them to pass what will help deepen our democratic process.”

Presidency backs NASS

 

The outcry, notwithstanding, the presidency has thrown its weight behind the National Assembly. The Special Adviser to the President on Political matters, Babafemi Ojudu, said the issues raised by the lawmakers before taking their decision on the matter should be considered.

“Well, I don’t know why that happened, but I guess listening to the debate on the floor, listening to the NCC officials who came, it could just be as a result of technical considerations.

 

They are saying that in some parts of the country, connectivity could be very slow, connectivity could be very unreliable, and if you have to move the results to another area where there is connectivity, something could happen on the way.

 

“And I think they also raised the issues of hackers; that even in America, with its technological perfection, hackers hacked results in some parts of America during the last election. I think that could have been the consideration for that. I have no personal opinion about that, but that is their decision.”

 

INEC insist on feasibility of e-transmission of results

 

Despite the rejection of electronic transmission of election results by the National Assembly, INEC insists that the use of the technology to deepen Nigeria’s electoral process is feasible.

 

The commission premised its optimism on the fact that its joint committee made up of telecommunication stakeholders had revised the system and concluded that electronic transmission of results is practicable.

 

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman (Information and Voter Education Committee), Festus Okoye, who gave the assurance said: “INEC has the capacity to transmit election results from the polling units to the Registration Area Collation Centres to the Local Government Collation Centres, the various state, federal and senatorial district collation centres, and the state and national collation centres.

 

“The Joint Technical Committee constituted by the commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission and made of telecommunication operators met on March 9, 2018, and the consensus was that the requirement for the electronic transfer of results proposed by INEC is practicable.

 

The meeting, therefore, agreed that the solution that INEC wants to deploy is possible. “We have the assurance of the service providers that they have provided similar technological solutions to other agencies and have the capacity to deploy technology to cover a few blind spots. The commission will continue to pilot different solutions bearing in mind that technology is dynamic and can limit human interference in the electoral process.

 

The commission wants broad powers to deploy technology and is not in favour of a particular solution being written into the law. “The commission is a creation of the constitution and the law and its powers are derived from the constitution.

 

The constitution has also given the National Assembly the power to make laws but such powers must not be in conflict with and or at variance with the provisions of the constitution.

 

We will continue to implement the provisions of the Electoral Act to the extent of its consistency with the constitution, as the constitution is the fundamental law of the land.

 

The commission will continue to build integrity and trust in the electoral process. “The commission has piloted and continues to pilot various electronic solutions that will improve the integrity of the electoral process. Presently, all the registered political parties upload the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates electronically.”

 

While the nation awaits the President’s assent, it is believed that the need to revolutionalise the country’s electoral process for its results to be less controvertible will guide him in his choice to sign the bill into law.

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