THE Independent National Electoral Commission has said that technology will drive Nigeria’s electoral process.
INEC’s National Commissioner, and Chairman, Information and voters Education, Festus Okoye, said this at a workshop for staff of the Commission’s Voters Education and Publicity Department, with support from the International Foundation for Electoral System, held in Lokoja.
Okoye said, “The commission plans to robustly ramp up its use of technology in the electoral process. This will include the introduction of electronic voting machines which will be deployed to all polling units and would be aligned to the already introduced devices and means that will amply raise the integrity and transparency of the electoral process.”
He said the introduction of technology in the electoral process by the INEC was not entirely new.
The INEC commissioner said, “With the new method, registered voters must still physically go out to the polling units to exercise their franchise. The enhanced technology process does not provide for people voting from the comfort of their homes.”
He, however, stated that the question of internet and cyber voting were issues that were being left for the future.
Okoye further said, “To be relevant in the new order that the Commission is enthroning, every staff must first align himself/ herself to the innovations; then the staff must understand his place in the scheme of affairs.
“Any staff who cannot locate himself within these changes and or adapt to the new realities of the electoral process will sadly find himself to be a burden if not an impediment to the wheel of progress.”
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