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Electronic transmission of election results possible in 2023 – Jega

Prof. Attahiru Jega is a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In this interview monitored on Channels Television, he speaks on the amended Electoral Act, electronic transmission of election results and electronic voting, among other issues. ANAYO EZUGWU reports

 

 

Do you think that electronic transmission of election results will to a large extent reduce election fraud and manipulations?

 

It is obvious as it is widely recognized that a good legal framework helps the electoral commission to conduct elections freely and fairly and also with integrity.

 

So, I think it is a commendable thing that the Senate reversed its position, listening to the demands and the voice of reasoning from civil society organisations. I think this can only be good for our democracy and particular for improving the conduct of elections in our country.

 

Adopting electronic transmission of election results will eliminate what I consider to be the major area in which fraud is perpetuated in the conduct of elections in Nigeria, which is through the manual transmission of results from the polling units to the ward level to the different layers of collations up to the constituency level.

 

There used to be diversion with collusion of either security or Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to change results along the way.

 

So, electronic transmission of results has the potential of ensuring that all these traditional fraudulent activities in Nigeria’s electoral process would be checkmated, so I think it is a very commendable thing. I think the next thing is that INEC now has the opportunity to deploy a very robust cyber secured electronic transmission of results for this objective to be actualized.

 

So, frankly, if the National Assembly can generally and the Senate, in particular, can continue to be receptive to genuine concerns of citizens in the manner in which they do their legislation, this country will be better for it.

 

But the Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, has some concerns which he thinks would still be a challenge mostly on some of the clauses in the amended Electoral Act, what do you think about his concerns?

 

I think it is a legitimate concern that has been expressed by Mr. Festus Okoye. He is a very good lawyer and also a member of the INEC. I think basically what he is talking about is the need to harmonize provisions of the Electoral Act, so that one provision doesn’t contradict another, so that at the end, those who either want to
cause mischief or who are aggrieved will not exploit the ambiguity and contradiction in the law.

 

I think it is a very legitimate concern and I think it behooves on the two committees of the National Assembly to harmonize the provisions of the bill and to also give serious attention to this suggestion that he has made. It is all value addition that will really continue to improve the operations and conducts of elections in our country.

 

Does that in any way to the best of your understanding negate the provision in clause 63 about the counting of votes and forms, which prescribe that the presiding officer should transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot in a manner as prescribed by the commission?

 

Obviously at the polling unit and at the collation centres as Okoye rightly pointed out, the compilation of results is manual.

 

Now, this provision says that the new provision about the electronic transmission of results presupposes that as soon as election results are compiled at the polling unit, they will be electronically transmitted to the different levels of collation.

 

But if you still have a provision in the law that also emphasises the technical aspect of manual transmission of results, then it is going to cause a serious ambiguity. Not only ambiguity, but it can also cause serious legal challenges. I think the key thing is harmonization to ensure that a good law does not carry any provision that contradicts others.

 

I mean all provisions should be consistent, seamless rather than contradictory. I think it is a very important demand and there is no doubt that we have to go in the direction of electronic transmission of results.

 

And where there is any provision that can affect or negate or constrain the effort to transmit results electronically, those provisions need to be carefully looked at and the necessary amendments also effected.

 

To what extent do you see this achieving the ultimate intention of addressing electoral fraud if these  provisions are not addressed as they have been pointed out?

 

If I understand the position made by Okoye, there are going to be remarkable constraints even legal challenges because of the ambiguity in this regard.

 

Frankly, as I have said earlier, it is a legitimate concern that needs to be addressed and this can be addressed at the level of harmonization by the committee that has been set up by the National Assembly to do so.

 

But we should not forget that electronic transmission of results is the way to go to remarkably improve the integrity of the conduct of elections. It will eliminate many traditional methods through which electoral fraud is perpetrated and the integrity of elections in Nigeria undermined.

 

So, really the National Assembly need to pay attention to this very important issue that has been raised.

 

How hopeful are you that the harmonization committee will produce the kind of position that everyone is expecting?

 

Well, I’m a remarkably optimistic person and we keep hope alive. I believe that the members of this committee, responsible senators and they are part and pastel of the decision of the Senate to revise its position on electronic transmission of results and to accept the need to transmit our results electronically.

 

I think they know that they are now duty-bound to do whatever is necessary to ensure that another clause in the law does not undermine this very important provision, which the Senate has now agreed.

 

We can now say that the National Assembly has actually agreed to transmit the results electronically.

 

So, we have to keep hope alive. We have to keep urging the members of the National Assembly in this harmonization committee to recognize that they cannot allow any ambiguity in the legal provision or any contradicting provision to undermine this very important decision that has been taken.

 

Concerns have been raised about the possibility of technological failure; if at the end of the day we achieve 60 or 70 per cent of this transmission, will that be rated as successful?

 

I have absolutely no doubt that INEC has been piloting electronic transmission of results with commendable results and I think what this provision of the law will do is to further ginger them up in terms of really being more focused on how to deploy very effective technology for sound electronic transmission of results.

 

I believe that between now and 2023 as they continue piloting what they already have we will be able to have a very good robust system that would transmit results competently and commendably.

 

Obviously, when we are dealing with technology, particularly, in an environment such as ours, which is technologically challenged because we don’t make the technology, we rely on others. We have to also devote a lot of time and energy to try to learn the know-how and they are bound to be challenges.

 

Countries like ours need to be satisfied with what I called incremental positive changes. If we can  move from manual to electronic and even if initially there are challenges, we should be able to really make substantive value additions, which will add and improve the integrity of our electoral system.

 

I have argued before and I will say it again, there is no country that does the perfect electronic transmission of results either because of network coverage or because of cyber security issues and hacking, but the important thing is you are committed to it and you diligently want to do it and you need cyber security and you train your people well and you have robust technological software and hardware for it.

 

Then, obviously you will make remarkable and substantial gains out of it. I keep saying and I believe that it is possible in 2023 for INEC to be able to do what I can call an A Grade in the electronic transmission of results. The objective should be to do it 100 per cent but if we can get even 90, 80 or 70, it is absolutely an A grade.

 

We should be happy with that first time around and we should keep on improving in that regard. But our fear of failure should not really prevent us from trying something new. It is something that clearly is the way to go all over the world because of the recognition of how important it is to the conduct of free and fair elections and the elimination of fraud in the electoral process.

We have taken the decision now and I’m happy about the decision of the National Assembly, the harmonization committee should now do the needful in terms of addressing some of these concerns that are being raised by INEC.

 

I must say that in creating a framework for the conduct of the election, it is very important that the National Assembly listen to the recommendations of INEC and I must say that I saw a report recently, which did an analysis of the recommendations submitted by INEC to the National Assembly and what the National Assembly has now done in this bill.

 

Many Nigerians do not know that out of about 37 specific recommendations made by INEC, the National Assembly in this draft bill has accommodated about 25 and fully adopted them and they modify about six. It is only about six that they have actually rejected, which we hope perhaps in the next legal reforms they will now accommodate them.

 

They should listen to INEC, which are the implementing agency of the legal provisions as well as operations of the conduct of elections because whatever they say will be evidence base with a view of improving the integrity of the process. It is a commendable process as a whole.

 

I think what almost undermine this very good effort by the National Assembly was what appeared as a self-serving attempt to jettison some of the very good recommendations by INEC, especially, the electronic transmission of results.

 

Now that they have accepted it is to carefully look at the other provisions that may constrain the implementation and then we are good to go. So, let’s keep hope alive and hope that members of this harmonization committee will do the right thing to satisfy the aspirations of Nigerians for free, fair and credible electoral integrity.

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