…To aid votes’ casting, result declaration, others
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reinforced the commission’s commitment towards increasing the application of technology in the electoral process.
Towards this end, the commission has inaugurated a 20-member Inter-Agency Technical Committee to assess a newly-developed e-voting system.
The commission disclosed this in a recent statement issued by INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi in Abuja and made available to Daily Times.
He said that the e-voting machine was developed by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI).
It would be recalled that the agency, led by the Minister for Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, had, in June this year, paid a visit to the commission for a demonstration of a prototype e-voting machine developed by NASENI.
Osaze-Uzzi said that the committee was inaugurated to evaluate the requirements for the successful deployment of the indigenous e-voting technology.
On his part, the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who was represented by INEC National Commissioner, Okechukwu Ibeanu, reiterated the Commission’s commitment towards increasing the application of technology in the electoral process, adding that he was happy that NASENI had gone that far in developing the machine.
According to him, the machine, which was indigenously developed would not only help the process, stressing that the application of electronic technology to the electoral process, particularly to the voting process would, increase the confidence of the electorate in the outcome.
Yakubu disclosed that it would also facilitate the work of the commission and solve part of the challenges the commission has had over the years which is the undue delay in votes casting, collation and result declaration.
“As such, every means of cutting down the turnaround time in that process is highly appreciated,” he added.
He assured the committee of the full support of the commission and urged them to diligently carry out the assignment.
Responding on behalf of the committee, Abbas Gummi pledged that the committee would live up to the expectations and would deliver a very good report.
Daily Times gathered that the committee made up of INEC employees, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and NASENI is to determine the e-voting needs of INEC and present a compilation of requirements for INEC’s successful deployment of a suitable e-voting solution.
It is also to evaluate the e-voting solution offered by NASENI in the light of the needs of INEC; assess the operational, technical and social issues associated with an e-voting system in Nigeria in the light of the NASENI’s solution.
It is also to consider the implications of extant electoral legal framework in Nigeria for the introduction of e–voting generally, and particularly the NASENI solution.
The committee is to also evaluate the sustainability of the NASENI e-voting solution in the light of other available solutions.
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