Published By: Oluwapelumi Oluwayemi
10th October, 2024
By Jethro Ibileke
Stakeholders have called for the introduction of e-voting, automated voter’s cards, and BVAS, in future elections to cut irregularities and voter apathy.
The call was made on Thursday in Benin, at a Media and CSO roundtable discussion on the recently concluded Edo State governorship election, organized by Yiaga Africa.
They noted that the process will not only make elections credible, but less expensive.
The Executive Director of Youth Empowerment Advocacy and Good Governance Initiative, Solomon Idiogbe, noted that an automated BVAS will count votes and upload them immediately.
“If we have an automated voter’s cards, the issue of voter apathy will reduce, because you will just take a stroll from your house and go to the nearest polling unit and the automated card will work in any of the BVAS, provided it is tried to Edo.
“The BVAS should be automated too in a way that any card can work with it and you vote. That same BVAS will perhaps count the votes and them upload them to the IReV,” he stated.
Idiogbe however lamented that politicians who benefit from manipulated elections may not allow it to work.
Also speaking, the Political Advisor to UN and ECOWAS Peace Support Operations in Africa, Blessed Jattoh, called for leveraging on technology to minimize human factors as they relate to collation of results.
According to him, “One of the key, as a way of moving forward, is that Nigeria should harness and leverage on technology as we find it all over the world, to cut some of the excesses we find in our electoral system.”
He added: “We see no reason why we use the BVAS to accredit people, to take their photographs and thumbprints, then, why can’t we use the same BVAS to view the logos of the various political parties in the same BVAS and then click on the logo of the the party I want to vote for right there as I am accredited, after all, the screen is wide enough.
“That way, the result will be displayed real time. As people are clicking, the result will be automatically collating itself in the BVAS for people to see, instead of snapping a pdf version of the total result into the server.
“All of this system gives room for human manipulation and factors we see in the election and our elections will be less expensive if Nigeria leverage on technology.
“But, unfortunately, we know that the key factors who continue to benefit from these irregularities will not allow it to work,” Jattoh added.
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