Some people want to undermine the integrity of future elections – PROF

Some people want to undermine the integrity of future elections – PROF 

By Chris Onuoha

Professor Attahiru Jega is immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As a former Chief Electoral Officer for the nation, Jega has been very keen on the current electoral processes, especially the steps taken by the National Assembly to review the Electoral Amendment Act 2010. In this interview conducted before the controversial passage of the Electoral Amendment Act 2021 by the National Assembly last week, Jega speaks on the use of electronic systems in voting and other things. Excerpts:

How far have we come in our Electoral Act?

As you rightly know, there has been significant improvement in uplifting the bars in the conduct of elections in the country; the bottom line is that our robust legal framework is critical to election administration and to ensuring that elections are conducted with integrity. So, it is absolutely necessary to periodically review the Electoral Act and some of the observed clauses in the implementation of the Act during the conduct of elections.

 

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And since 2010, there were significant amendments of the Electoral Act. When the 8th National Assembly commenced the process of producing the Electoral Bill 2021, many Nigerian stakeholders who wanted to see improvement of the electoral legal framework and in the conduct of elections were very happy and have participated very actively in that process. So, it is necessary to periodically review because it has been long overdue and that it is good that, at the long last, there is an effort which is almost concluded to review the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

It is that process that is giving some Nigerians worries, as some lawmakers who were part of the process are now alleging that there are always fears of electoral amendment especially in the area of transmission of results. The Senate Committee Chairman on INEC who is in charge of the Electoral Act amendments said that the only reason the electronic result may not be feasible is due to internet penetration and other logistics issues. Should the electoral transmission be excluded in this amendment or disabled?

We all know that in most electoral jurisdictions in the world, efforts are being made to introduce technology in order to improve the integrity of elections. I think when one looks at the draft of the Electoral Bill currently in circulation which the National Assembly hopes to pass before they go on recess, there is a very contradicting provision in there. While they permit INEC to use electoral voting, they now said, provided that INEC does not use the electronic transmission of results. It is really counterproductive. You can’t permit INEC on one hand to use electronic voting and not use electronic transmission of the results because usually they go as a package.

Most countries are using it as the best practice because electronic transmission of results, once there is a robust software and hardware for doing so, now brings efficiency, transparency and real time ability to see that results are transmitted from the polling units to national collation centers.

It is a good practice and it is upscaling the use of technology to improve the integrity of the electoral process. Frankly, denying INEC the use of the electronic process in the transmission of results would be counterproductive and it would undermine the integrity of future elections. We all know how human agencies play out; the interference in collation of results and how the declaration of results is affected by those human agencies, whether it is holding returning officers under duress through bribery or intimidation and other things.

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Electronic transmission of results will ensure that the traditional fraudulent activity of changing results from polling units to the collation center is now a thing of the past. But it is very important that our lawmakers recognise this. It is useless in my view to say you can do electronic voting and you cannot transmit results electronically. In any case, many countries usually begin with the electronic transmission of results before they even start to use electronic voting. Again I know for a fact that since 2012 – 2013, INEC has been piloting electronic transmission of results in order to get the framework to begin to launch it.

And, as we say, at some of the LG elections, they already have a real robust and transparent process of transmitting results. All they need to do is to pay attention to cyber security to guard against infiltration or hacking. And there is good software out there that prevents hackers from tampering with results they have transmitted along the line. I think that we expect the National Assembly to bring about reform measures that will move the integrity of elections and, frankly, not permitting transmission of electoral results would even create an impression that the legislators are afraid or unconcerned about the integrity of the process of the results. Because there are many irregularities in the processes related to the manual or analogue of transmission of results.

For someone who has managed elections in Nigeria, a lot of Nigerians know that most of the manipulations we see in the elections happen in transmission of results and not even in the voting. I also know that INEC in Edo State experimented with the electronic portal, although not legally backed. Now, is it that politicians are jittery because they cannot be in control?

There are some of those concerns. And not all politicians are fraudulent and crooked.  But it is definitely a tendency in our country. Some politicians want to win by using every means necessary. And one clear area where they have been doing this and regrettably is in the changing of results as they move from the polling units to the collation centers. And as you rightly pointed out, the pilot that INEC did in some of the off season elections shows clearly that we are headed towards more transparency and more efficiency in the processing and transmission of results. Again, use of electronic transmission of results would also minimize the time it takes for final results to be declared.

And, again, there is clear possibility in terms of interrogating results electronically in case there are doubts about the efficacy or legitimacy of some of these results.  I think honest politicians in the National Assembly who want the improvement in the integrity of the electoral process should not pander to the wishes of the crooked ones, and should therefore ensure that this Electoral Bill 2021 is appropriately amended before it is passed, but will introduce this significant required improvement in the electoral process.

Is Nigeria ready for an electoral process that is fully digitized or electronic?

If you mean full digitized, that’s okay, but I would add that we make haste slowly. We must slow down so that electronic voting can be done properly and appropriately, it really would go a long way in improving the integrity and credibility of our elections. But I saw many challenges in our country. For one thing, effective, thorough electronic voting, you need the infrastructure, software and also need the associated support infrastructure. For example, we need stability of electricity, extensive network coverage, and robust and reliable internet facility and accessibility.

In Nigeria, many of our polling units are either in areas where there is no stable electricity; if there is at all or where there is no effective internet network. I think to that extent, we have to make haste slowly in the sense that once INEC is given the legal power to deploy electronic voting, then they can start, first of all by looking at all the available electronic voting technologies and find the ones that are most adaptable and suitable to our circumstances.

This is something INEC did a long time ago, if not for the legal impediments which said that there shall be no electronic voting. But now that the electoral amendment in the new bill would permit electoral voting, it gives INEC the opportunity to look for a very adaptable electronic technology that can suit our own purposes, and also look at the possibility of if electronic voting should commence when and how it should commence in what time frame.

So, I think removing the legal impediments and allowing INEC to use electronic voting gives it the scope to begin to look at how to do this. I think that is a good development. Where there is a problem is where the legal provision that gives INEC to deploy electronic voting is also denying INEC the power to do electronic transmission of results.

It is very contradictory and also undermines electronic voting. So, it is good for us to look in the direction of electronic voting. And for us to begin to plan for it, I think it can be done in phases. Many countries that have done it have stable electricity and internet connectivity. This can be started in the cities where we have a large concentration of voters.

The piloting of electronic voting has to be together with the transmission of the results. In my view, you can’t do the voting without the transmission. We should make haste slowly but should be focused and determined to systematically use technology for the process.

•Interview first aired on Channels Television