Punch Editorial Board

After a prolonged and needless controversy, the Senate on Tuesday finally bowed to reason when it passed a bill to sanction the electronic transmission of election results. This is the right way to go. Nigeria’s resolve to break free from the cycle of rigging, violence and litigation tarnishing its elections had been enmeshed in an unnecessary disputation at the National Assembly when its two chambers obstructed the digitisation of polling.

Although NASS had promised to actualise electoral reform at inception in 2019, the lawmakers’ open opposition to legislating the e-transmission of election results in the 2023 general election dismayed Nigerians anxious for a break from violent and contentious elections. The parliament should now move quickly to harmonise their positions and amend the Electoral Act accordingly, adopting provisions to fully automate voting, collation, and transmission of results.

Experts say nearly all countries now use digital technology for at least some aspects of election management. Creating and managing voter registers, as well as transmitting and tabulating results have been digitised in many countries. It is therefore curious that the federal lawmakers were initially hell-bent on reversing the gains in the electronic voting system. Thankfully, in bowing to reason, the Senate has made a move towards restoring integrity to the country’s disreputable elections.

At the plenary, the upper chamber revoked a clause that gave the Nigerian Communications Commission the power to determine for the Independent National Electoral Commission on the e-transmission of results. The new Clause 52(2) states, “Subject to Section 63 of this Bill, voting at an election and transmission of results under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission, (INEC) which may include electronic voting.”

This is comforting and ends the earlier sparring. On the one side of the bitter wrangling had been the federal parliament, versus INEC backed by key stakeholders. Essentially, NASS had flatly rejected the e-transmission of results in elections despite the obvious advantages. On the other hand, concerned political leaders like Attahiru Jega, immediate past chairman of INEC, Goodluck Jonathan, some governors and civil society organisations have been campaigning to enthrone e-voting and e-transmission of results.

Citing extraneous reasons, the House of Representatives retained the controversial old Clause 52(2) in the Electoral Act. Affirming that e-transmission is not feasible in 2023, the clause gave INEC the discretion to “determine when, where and how voting and transmission of results will be done.” That was laughable, confusing, and deceptive. Since 2012, INEC has implemented various technologies, including the permanent voter card, and the smart card reader for verification. In August 2020, INEC demonstrated its readiness for e-transmission of results with a portal for the live transmission of results before the off-season Edo and Ondo state governorship polls.

In the Senate, lawmakers had argued falsely that mobile technology is deficient in Nigeria. By early 2022 however, Nigeria would have upgraded its mobile technology to 5G. The senators’ earlier veto of the e-transmission of results was therefore illogical, more so as the chamber voted that it was the NCC that would decide when INEC could implement the e-transmission of results with the approval ultimately resting on NASS. Going forward, the Senate should avoid such overreach; its brief is to make laws, it is not an executive organisation saddled with micro-managing the day-to-day running of elections.

Now that this hurdle has been crossed, all other measures should be put in place to strengthen the electoral process. The major drawback to free, fair, and credible elections in Nigeria begins with the manual collation of results at the polling unit. Between the unit and the collation centre, results get brazenly tampered with, reversed, and inflated. Some results never reach the collation centre, only for politicians to write the result that suits them. At the highest pedestal, the judiciary employs technicalities to approve these rigged results by claiming that there is no law on e-voting.

Jega had rightly pointed out that e-voting is cost-effective, whereas the current system is prone to abuse. “Increasing use of technology is global best practice to improve the integrity of elections. In Nigeria, we have tried to introduce the use of technology on an incremental basis,” he said.

Jonathan, who was president between 2010 and 2015, said; “I have always made the case that electronic voting is the way to go, if we truly desire to secure the credibility and integrity of our elections. It is difficult, therefore, to understand why the argument against the possibility of electronic transmission of election results continues to subsist, despite all the advancements made in information and communication technology, over the years.” Tunde Bakare, a cleric, reasoned, “In this highly connected 21st century, we have no excuse to reject the electronic transmission of election results.”

Going by precedent, time is already running out. To avoid the pitfalls of the past, the parliament should transmit the amended bill quickly to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Apart from having to give INEC enough time to prepare the ground for e-voting, the Eighth NASS, and the President derailed the attempts to implement technology in 2019 polls. While NASS wasted time amending the Electoral Act, the President refused to sign the bill into law on three separate occasions. Buhari claimed there were typographical errors and came too close to the polls.

But the trouble does not end here. To nurture democracy and good governance, Nigerians should not give up on further electoral reforms. Groups and CSOs should mobilise the people at the grassroots for credible polling. The efficacy of digitisation has been proved abroad and at home. In September, Kaduna State, under Governor Nasir el-Rufai, pioneered e-voting during its local government polls. Despite the teething problems, it came out as successful. That should be replicated on a national scale.

The bane of Nigeria is its warped leadership selection process. Only the people’s real choice can obviate retrogression by transforming its archaic, primordial political traditions. The ultimate objective is to entrench electronic vote-casting to ensure a more credible poll, speedy counting of ballots and reduction in the cost of election and improved accessibility for disabled voters. This is a contemporary lesson in politics, as Namibia (2014), Brazil (1996), India (2004), Estonia (2005), the Philippines (2010) and Venezuela (1998) have all adopted e-voting. This will significantly reduce the contentions and litigation associated with elections in Nigeria, confer greater credibility on the outcome and deepen democracy.