As Kaduna State Sets the Pace on e-election

As the demand for better electoral reforms by Nigerians continue to gain traction, Kaduna State under Governor Nasir El-Rufai has for the second time set a standard for subsequent elections in Nigeria after last week’s local government council polls, writes Emameh Gabriel

Kaduna state once again seems to have shown the way towards electoral transparency and integrity, particularly in the light of the raging controversy over electronic transmission of election results in the country.

The election for councillors and chairmanship of the 23 Local Government Areas, that took place on Saturday, September 4, saw not only the use of the electronic voting systems but also the electronic transmission of the results.

The outcome of the election has again triggered the debate for the adoption of fully electronic voting system in the country.

The debate to adopt electronic voting system and transmission of election results in Nigeria has over the years continued to face stiffer constraint from some politicians who have no faith in the technology despite pressure from the larger population calling a further push on electoral reform through information technology, which is increasingly affecting all aspects of life, and to a large scope, the political system of every society.

But last week’s local government polls conducted in Kaduna State has set another record that Nigeria is more than ready to adapt to digital voting system and transmission of results through modern technology.

The National Assembly had, after recent passage of the new Electoral Amendment Act, ruled out electronic transmission of election results in the country. But by this feat, Kaduna state and particularly the state governor Nasir El-Rufai has shown itself as a pace setter and a model for electoral development.

Speaking on the innovation, the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIEC), Mrs Dikko-Audu said the results will be sent directly from the electronic voting machines to the KADSIECOM servers, while party agents and security agencies at the polling units will have card copies of the summary of results printed from the machine. At the conclusion of voting, the result from each electronic voting machine is printed in ten copies so that the party agents at the polling unit will have a copy each. “The security agents at the polling unit will also have copies and the result is transmitted to our server here in Kaduna. It is also stored in the USB port of the machine.

“You have four levels where the result is stored: the paper trail, the summary of results, the memory of the machine itself and the transmission to the server at headquarters. It will be hard for anyone to say they want to rig an election and change all those four values. Remember that I said we print ten copies of the summary of results, so ten people already have the results out there. How are you going to get all ten and change them? It will be very difficult.”

Her position further gives credence to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) insistence that it has the capacity and the required technological infrastructure to transmit results electronically in remote areas as against the position of the leadership of the National Assembly.

INEC’s Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, in a recent interview said the Commission was ready and has the capacity to conduct and transmit election results in any part of the country, insisting that the Commission’s position was clear.

He said: “We have uploaded results from very remote areas, even from areas where you have to use human carriers to access,” he said. “So, we have made our own position very clear, that we have the capacity and we have the will to deepen the use of technology in the electoral process.

“But our powers are given by the constitution and the law, and we will continue to remain within the ambit and confines of the power granted to the commission by the constitution and the law.”

Section 52(3) of the passed electoral amendment Act bill, which deals with electronic transmission. Clause 52(3) of the bill had prescribed that INEC might adopt electronic voting and transmission of results where practicable.

The section, which provided for INEC to determine electronic process of voting was, however, amended to empower the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to determine suitability of network to conduct electronic election processes with approval of the National Assembly.

Lawmakers who opposed electronic transmission of results had argued that some parts of the country do not have the required network coverage.

According to an Executive Commissioner at the NCC, Adeleke Adewolu, who briefed lawmakers at the House of Representatives during the debate that only 50 percent of the country has the 3G coverage required for transmission.

The main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had in its submission contend that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no excuses not to use the electronic direct transmission of results in the 2023 general elections and other future polls.

The PDP said its position was predicated on INEC’s announcement of its readiness to conduct online (electronic) registration of voters for future elections in the country.

The party had insisted that since INEC is in the position to deploy technology to conduct online registration of voters, which entails electronic transmission of voter’s data to its central server, the commission can also conduct an electronic transmission of results directly from the polling unit to its central server.

“Our party calls the attention of the commission to the fact that it no longer has any excuse not to employ the direct transmission of results from polling units, which will ensure credible elections by eliminating manipulations, alterations, switching, and disappearance of election results during manual collation processes.

“The PDP insists that if INEC can use the electronic platform for registration of voters it could as well deploys the same technology for electronic transmission of results in future elections including the 2023 general elections.

“Our party however urges INEC to ensure that the online registration of voters is credible, transparent, and not open to the manipulations of desperate politicians, particularly in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai who was a guest in television programme monitored by THISDAY on Monday where he spoke on the outcome of the election, hailed the credibility of the innovation, saying the outcome so far is satisfactory, and shows that the APC did not interfere with the programming of the electronic voting machines as indicated by the loss of his polling unit.

He said the outcome of the election, even in his unit, shows that people voted based on the performance of elected officials.

The governor further gave insight into the technical operationality of the system by saying the machines can be remotely disconnected to avoid interference with results.

According to El-Rufai, “People were laughing that I lost my polling unit, but you know, it is democracy that won.

“I am happy that the loss of my polling unit shows we did not program these machines and we did not influence our Independent National Electoral Commission and the whole thing went very well,” El-Rufai stated.

He added, “those that claim that the machines were programmed were ashamed when it was reported that APC lost in my polling unit”.

When asked what measures could be put in place to avoid snatching of the technology, he said, “There is little we can do to avoid thugs snatching electoral machines, but you should know that these machines are programmed to be disconnected remotely by the electoral commission. The machine also provides its GPS location so you can target and go and recover it.”

The Kaduna State Governor further explained why there must continues voters education to build confidence on Nigerians that the technology can work. He said he was going to take the issue up with President Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly to reconsider the debate on electronic transmission of election results.

If anything, going by his comment and the success recorded in the just concluded local government polls in Kaduna State, electronic voting and electronic transmission of results have started gaining traction. What happened in Kaduna is a wake up call to state governors and state assemblies to take a cue from El-Rufai in reforming the electoral system in the country.

QUOTE

Last week’s local government polls conducted in Kaduna State has set another record that Nigeria is more than ready to adapt to digital voting system and transmission of results through modern technology