A former governor of Edo State, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, has said that the proposed electronic voting system will ensure integrity in the conduct of the 2019 election, if confidence is built in the minds of the people.
Osunbor said the process had been planned long before now, but it failed because of what people thought would be its negative effects.
He said but with the widespread knowledge of technology, it would be a good platform to stop election rigging and vote buying.
The leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission had met to check the possible adoption of electronic voting in the 2019 general elections.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, and the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had agreed that it was a huge step towards entrenching free, fair and credible elections in the country.
But while speaking on the development, ex-governor Osunbor said that the platform should be established with a solid trust to endear its patronage to the electorate.
“Many years, the adoption of electronic voting has been on the minds of people, even as far back as when I was in the Senate and as Chairman Committee on INEC. That was as far back as 2003. We considered it, but many people were very averse to technology for the purpose of election at that time,” he said.
According to Osunbor, at first, the establishment of electronic registration was difficult, but when it began operations, it was welcomed by all.
He further said with e-voting, the integrity of the election would be assured.
The former governor said, “It was a thug of war before we got the Senate to approve electronic registration. Many people are now comfortable with the idea of electronic registration. The next logical step is to proceed to electronic voting; once the people are comfortable with the integrity, then I do not see why we cannot adopt it. It will be more accurate than this manual thing that we are doing. In so many aspects of life, technology is proving to be superior over the whole system.
“There is hope that electronic voting will improve on the integrity and credibility of elections in Nigeria. Once the confidence can be established in the minds of Nigerians, I do not see any reason why it cannot be adopted. I personally will advocate it, based on the general premise that technology and electronics are more efficient than the manual system that we are using now.”