By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja
As the National Assembly checks critical issues of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill before retransmission to President Muhammadu Buhari, Yiaga Africa, has demanded that electronic transmission of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should be included in amendment of the Electoral Act.
Explaining why the demand is made, the Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said in 2018, Yiaga Africa reported that INEC successfully transmitted results using the smart card readers in 77 per cent of the polling units during Ekiti State governorship election and 75 per cent of polling units in the September 2018 Osun governorship election.
According to Itodo, by 2020, the Electoral Commission improved on its processes by introducing the Z-Pad technological devise used polling units level results to a dedicated online portal, INEC Result Viewing, IRev, which was deployed first during August 2020, Nasarawa Central Constituency bye-election as a test-run and in the Edo governorship election, the Z-Pad was used to take photos of the polling unit ECBA result sheets.
He said: “To incorporate the electronic transfer of results into the Nigerian electoral system, any law that bars or prohibits INEC from transmitting election results electronically from the polling unit must be prevented.
“It is therefore incumbent on the National Assembly to ensure that electronic transmission of results is legalized in Nigeria’s electoral framework for the benefit of all Nigerians.
“With the success recorded by INEC via uploading polling unit results in Edo and Ondo States, Yiaga Africa had in it Election Observer Report on the 2020 Edo Gubernatorial election called on the National Assembly to accelerate reforms to the Electoral Act to legalise electronic transmission of results.
“This was an ardent call in addition to the demands from Civil Society Organisations and international partners recommending a new Electoral Law that guarantees the electronic accreditation, voting and transmission of results for transparent elections.”
However, he pointed that some political actors are kicking against the electronic transmission of results.
The efficiency of the technology; understandably, there are questions as to whether or not electronic transmission of results are as safe and efficient as they are postured to be. It is imperative to state that no electronic system us 100 per cent failsafe. There is always the possibility no matter how small for things to go wrong. Errors are possible even with the advanced technologies in place.
“Nonetheless, experts assert that the introduction of technology in elections offers an extremely high level of security and confidence as they are considered to be far sager than manual systems which are often prone to flagrant rigging.
“For Nigeria, the demand for the electronic transmission of results is founded on the need for a complementary system, legalized to serve as an additional check to the manual collation of results. The success recorded during the test run in previous elections in Nigeria is an indication that INEC can efficiently transmit results from polling units.
“Ability to detect fraud; Political actors who want power at all costs and would not mind sacrificing the common good of the nation in exchange for their selfish interests may be apprehensive of the electronic transmission of results. This is because the technology outmanoeuvres the gimmicks of mischievous politicians who are constantly bent on collaborating to falsify genuine polling unit results.”
He also augured there is high teledensity of the country by telecom companies as revealed by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, which serves as fact for inclusion of electronic transmission of polling unit results during elections conducted by INEC.
“Nigeria is a leading African mobile telecom market and as of September 2012, Nigeria had reached a subscribing base of 107 million. Reports have shown that the mobile penetration level in Nigeria was at 654.8 per cent on a population estimate of 162.5 million in 2012.
“A current report from the Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, revealed that as of May 2021, network penetration in Nigeria with respect to the active lines for mobile (GSM) was at 184, 695, 465 with total connected Mobile (GSM) at 296, 646, 228. The report further revealed that teledensity was at 97.98 per cent”, he said.
Credit VANGUARD.
