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31 Jan 2012
By Aminu F. Hamajoda
It is amazing that only a single political entity (the
CPC) is insisting that a pretentious electronic
election project be taken to a logical conclusion in a
nation that prior to 2011, has fervently clamoured and
had expended over 132 billion Naira for clean
elections. Nigerians must recall that INEC had
promised e-voting system in 2011 and received funds
for that before it defaulted due to poor ICT planning
in the face of the challenges end-to-end biometric
election portents.
This default has resulted into serious difficulties in
voter registration across the country despite spending
over N90 million on ICT consultancies. Biometric based
elections are designed to ensure the accuracy and
authenticity of every vote, i.e that only eligible
voters vote and that they vote only once. A completely
biometric optical voting ensures the above
automatically. However, if for any reason a combined
method of biometric database and paper based voting is
introduced, then a post-balloting forensic involving
some randomly selected boxes should be subjected to
finger print analysis and audit. INEC has dubiously
exonerated itself from this phase calling on any
petitioner to go to court.
The courtroom is not a place for computer-related
verifications nor is the onus of the exercise resting
on opposition parties. The nation has again missed a
point and Nigerians are gullibly snowed as they are
ever worn to. Scientific methods like biometric-based
elections require more than observation of election
process to include ballot auditing. INEC's concern
with privacy in auditing ballot boxes is nonsense
because auditing will focus on only fingerprints not
the identity of the voters or the vote papers. Only a
computer machine can uncover ballot box stuffing and
multiple thumb printing. Recently INEC belatedly
announced over 8000 double registrations. Why is the
commission not going further to announce to the nation
how many votes are multiple thumbprints!
The duty of post-election forensic audit rests on
either INEC or a constitutionally elected body. Such a
body will carry out the exercise not necessarily to
overturn elections, but to achieve the national aim
for greater election integrity as the basis for
democracy and peace. Distrust for election results is
the major cause for post election violence in Africa.
Why bargain for potential violence when a clean
election system can be established. Clean elections do
seemingly take place in cities and towns where foreign
observers, party agents and voters themselves ensure
that. However, behind hills, rural areas, creeks etc,
many types of rigging take place especially where
opposition is weak.
The only way to eliminate ballot-based rigging is to
insert a post-election phase for ballot auditing. This
forensic exercise should be done by a body made of
party leaders, security agents, NGOs, and other
selected stakeholders in an audit exercise based on
random techniques. Certainly it is wrong for any
contending party to request for all ballot boxes in
the federation. Limiting the number of boxes to be
audited can mitigate the overwhelming technical
challenge of comparing electronic fingerprints to
paper fingerprints. Ballot boxes can be randomly
selected from the 111,430 wards of the federation
based on geopolitical zones, states, senatorial
districts or other electoral demarcations. Even the
selection of six ballot boxes to represent the six
geopolitical zones can suffice. The aim of the random
technique is to limit selection of boxes based on
sound random criteria to ensure the exercise is
completed within a week after election. If as alleged
votes in the South Eastern states are bloated during
the presidential election, why wasn't a random
technique used to select few ballot boxes for
auditing? Consumer scanners and suitable biometric
audit software can implement such an audit exercise to
the satisfaction of stakeholders.
Failure to imbibe post-election forensics by INEC will
render the biometric basis of the electoral process
useless and a hoax. The heart of democracy is voting
and denying an openly verifiable system is like
stabbing the heart of democracy. Again, the aim of the
exercise is not to overturn presidential or
gubernatorial elections but to help ensure the
integrity of elections. The use of modern voting
technology is not for ostentation but a model to
ensure trust by providing verifiable election
processes. How can INEC that promised end-to-end
biometric voting system shrug of its responsibility
for electronic tallying of votes? If the commission is
facing technical difficulties, it should come out
plainly to tell Nigerians the challenges it is facing
now that it has the sympathy of Nigerians.
It is even more pertinent that the National Assembly
put an end to the rackets civic projects are reduced
to in Nigeria. Since the 1970s, civic projects like
Census, National ID Card, and Voter registration has
gulped in billions of Naira. A National Civic
Registration Commission that can register birth,
death, marriages, national identity, voter
eligibility, etc on a continuous rather than expensive
periodic basis, should be enacted. Civic registration
offices should be opened in all wards of the
federation for civic registration matters and
maintenance of related records. Thousands of
under-aged Nigerians have since the last elections
qualified to be registered and many registered voters
have died, millions of National ID cards are currently
worthless due to changes in age, occupation, addresses
and other relevant fields. The yearly increase in
population and other demographic records are never
captured since the last census. Previous voter
registrations data since 1960s have been jettisoned!
It is time we centralize and preserve civic
registrations, and ensure it is done on a continuous
basis using the benefits of modern technology while
institutions like INEC should be left to conduct
elections alone.
Aminu F. Hamajoda (aminufhamajoda@yahoo.com) |
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