By Emmanuel Okogba
A former Nationwide Commissioner of the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), Mustapha Lecky has acknowledged that Nigeria just isn’t technically ready for necessary real-time digital transmission of election outcomes from polling models.
Talking on Channels Tv’s Politics At this time programme on Friday, Lecky argued that the present push for instantaneous uploads is misplaced given the nation’s continued reliance on guide voting with paper ballots somewhat than digital voting.
“It doesn’t actually make sense to me that we must be speaking about instantaneous transmission of outcomes dwell as it’s taking place from the polling space,” Lecky stated.
He emphasised that outcomes should first be manually counted and verified at polling models within the presence of occasion brokers earlier than any transmission can happen. The EC8A kind, signed by occasion brokers, stays the essential authorized doc within the course of.
“We don’t do digital voting wherever. Are we doing digital voting? We’re very far-off from it,” Lecky added.
Based on Lecky, present instruments similar to INEC’s Consequence Viewing Portal (IReV) and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) already present sufficient transparency when correctly carried out. He careworn that Nigeria lacks the nationwide infrastructure—significantly dependable cell community protection in lots of rural polling models—essential to help real-time digital transmission with out risking widespread failures or cyber vulnerabilities.
“For digital transmission, we aren’t prepared. We aren’t technically prepared,” he warned, noting that dashing the system may expose the electoral course of to better dangers in a rustic with restricted digital resilience.
Lecky urged INEC to give attention to strengthening and perfecting present methods somewhat than introducing untested necessary real-time transmission necessities.
He identified that much more technologically superior democracies proceed to face challenges with election know-how, reinforcing the necessity for warning and sufficient preparation in Nigeria’s context.
The feedback come amid ongoing public and legislative discussions on electoral reforms forward of future elections.
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