According to a recent announcement, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has developed a new special mobile application, which will give Nigerians the opportunity to effectively monitor events at the polls as they unfold and reduce electoral discrepancies.
The app, which is anticipated to help curb vote buying and will allow the electorate report live from their different polling units, will be made available to all Nigerians via mobile app stores like the Google Play Store and via the commission’s official website.
The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Board of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Mustapha Lecky, made this known while addressing pressmen at the opening of a three-day workshop on electoral security in Abuja last Thursday.
Using its geo-referencing features, the app will enable the electoral body monitor the elections through the eyes of the voters and provide attention to any location where challenges may arise.
Lecky explained that this was specially created to address the growing problem of vote buying in the country, an endemic to the elections.
“We have deployed something that most of you media men are paying little regards to; and that us the fact, as at today, if you go to INEC website or Google Play Store, you can download an INEC i-reporter which is something that INEC has spent a lot of money in developing.”
“It allows every Nigerian to be an observer and a reporter of events as it happens. This, you can download freely, and have it on your smart phones. So, you can take pictures, you can also take a short video and send to us,” he said.
According to Lecky, another method the commission has employed to address vote buying is banning the use of smartphones at polling booths as most people use theirs to take pictures of their ballot papers as receipts for payments made by candidates.
For many, the new app is a welcome development which makes the election monitoring process more accessible to Nigerians as opposed to it solely resting on the Commission’s shoulder. This way, a clean and fair election process is the responsibility of every Nigerian.
Although there are visible limitations to the app such as the fact that most Nigerians in rural areas can rarely afford smartphones, or don’t have access to good network service from their mobile service providers, the major issue is the lack of publicity the app has been given.
This is a step in the right direction, however, to make it effective, the Commission needs to sensitise Nigerians on the apps existence as well as its benefits.
