Following the complications that occurred during and after the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, the country’s National Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has expressed optimism in its plan to make manual voting a thing of the past for the Nigerian voting community. The commission has expressed hope that technology will take center stage in the next general elections scheduled for 2023.
The National Chairman of the Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced this on Thursday while speaking about progress made so far with the proposed bill aimed at reforming Nigeria’s Electoral Act at the opening of a two-day retreat with the National Assembly Committee on Electoral Matters in Lagos, Nigeria.
Electoral Act Reform in Nigeria
Noting several milestones in the proposed reform, Yakubu revealed that the bill for an Act for the establishment of the National Electoral Offences Commission, sponsored in the Nigerian Senate by Senator Abubakar Kyari and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the Deputy Senate President, as well as in the lower House of Representatives by Hon. John Dyegh, had passed its second reading in the upper chamber and first reading in the lower chamber.
At the retreat, which was declared open by Senator Omo Agege and had members of both chambers of the National Assembly in attendance, the Commission’s Chairman reiterated his team’s commitment to the effective use of technology in upcoming elections to support the recent electronic voters’ register.
“It is time for new legislation to remove all encumbrances to further deployment of technology in the electoral process, especially in the accreditation of voters and transmission of election results. Sections 49 and 67 of the draft Bill deal with these twin issues. These sections will be thoroughly discussed at this retreat. Working with the National Assembly, it is our hope that the 2019 general election will be the last mainly manual election in Nigeria,” said the Chairman.
Looking back at Nigeria’s struggle with electoral reform, Yakubu recalled the 2009 Uwais Committee on Electoral Reform, as well as the 2011 Post-Election Violence Lemu Committee and the Nnamani Committee on Electoral Reform of 2017. Calling on the National Assembly to ensure that a difference is made this time around, Yakubu added: “It’s time to walk the talk.”
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
