In the most populous black nation in the world, the Nigerian Society of Engineers recently suggested that the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) use the Nigeria Communication Satellite’s (NigComSat’s) e-Voting platform to ensure credible elections in the forth coming 2015 elections.
The Engineers said they are willing to offer technical support to INEC on so as to enable a smooth usage of the software. They assured INEC that this was the exact system they used in performing their executive elections and that it would save cost if used for the forth coming elections.
Here is what the President of the society, Engr Mustapha Balarabe Shehu, had to say about it.
“We have successfully used the NigComSat e-Voting platform to elect our executive members twice and we believe that INEC could also use the platform in the coming election. Government is already tackling the issue of power and broadband penetration. Once that is settled, I believe the next thing is for INEC to key in into the e-voting platform.
We have tested it twice and we believe that it is workable,”.
In your opinion, what do you think about this? Would it bring about a free and fair election or would it prove otherwise? Your comments are highly welcome.