ACN advocates electronic voting in 2015
National Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
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Action Congress of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to embrace electronic voting in 2015 general elections.
The party said electronic voting would ensure transparency as well as help to reduce the cost of elections in the country.
The ACN said this in a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The device, the party added, would ensure stability, noting that “the atmosphere of war” associated with elections in the country would disappear.
It said, “We assure the Independent National Electoral Commission of our full support towards using electronic voting in 2015. We also appeal to all other political parties, civil society organisations and indeed all Nigerians to join us in pushing for a system that will eliminate the role of thugs and sideline vote thieves during our elections, in addition to making our elections free, fair and credible.
“While electronic voting is not a magic wand, it is the surest way yet for Nigeria to join the league of countries that have wiped out electoral fraud, which is the worst form of corruption. It is also the best way to hand over Nigeria’s elections back to Nigerians, instead of having the judiciary determine who wins what contest. Two years is a long enough time to achieve this.”
It said though Section 52 sub-section 2 of the Electoral Act bans the use of electronic voting”for the time being,” the National Assembly should amend the parts of the constitution that are related to the use electronic system.
The party added, “It’s elections to a few ‘wise’ men and women on the bench. One result of Nigeria’s successive failed elections is that it has brought corruption to the judiciary. It is time to free judges to do their duties and allow Nigerians to play more roles in determining who governs them.’’
Appealing to the Federal Government to provide INEC with all the resources needed to make electronic voting a reality, the ACN said the country should emulate Ghana in its electronic system of voting.
It said, “It is not just enough for us to sit back in envy while the world hails our neighbour, Ghana, for being a model in electoral rectitude and participatory democracy. Let us ask ourselves what we need to do differently to shed our toga of electoral fraud and brigandage.
“Yes, there were some hiccups during the last elections in Ghana, which were conducted with electronic voting, but Ghana quickly moved to correct whatever problems that came up. The system also allowed Ghana to extend voting without fearing that ballot boxes would be hijacked or stuffed.”
CULLED FROM: PUNCH NEWSPAPERS
January 14, 2013 by Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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