The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has promised to deploy more broadband infrastructure whenever Nigeria is ready for electronic voting (e-voting).
Professor Umar Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC says the broadband investment will complement the National Broadband Plan of Nigeria, a broad plan for ubiquitous Internet services across the country.
Danbatta said yesterday at the 12th public lecture of The Electoral Institute (TEI), the training arm of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, that the broadband facilities would cover virtually all major cities and rural areas of Nigeria.
[quote font=”georgia” font_size=”23″ font_style=”italic” align=”right” bgcolor=”#” color=”#” bcolor=”#” arrow=”yes”]According to the NCC chief, the paper-based ballot system of voting was susceptible to human errors and influences noting that e-voting would not only improve on the efficacy and confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process, but translate into free, fair and credible elections.[/quote]
He observed that during these elections, card readers generally failed to verify fingerprints, problems that he said is “is attributed to the ICT platforms.”
According to the NCC chief, the paper-based ballot system of voting was susceptible to human errors and influences noting that e-voting would not only improve on the efficacy and confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process, but translate into free, fair and credible elections.
On the NCC part, the Commission has rolled out an eight-point agenda with one of the key areas of emphasis focused on the provision of efficient/ effective access to ICT platforms.
According to Danbatta, “these include facilitating broadband penetration; improving quality of service and promoting ICT innovation and investment opportunities. The need to foster methods that will address problems in our voting system has led TEI to explore e-voting which depends on ICT platforms for its operations.”
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who was represented by Hajia Amina Zakari of INEC, said it was commendable that African countries were adopting the use of technology to improve on their electoral processes, which, according to him had reduced tension and crisis in elections.
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