Electronic Voting: Panacea For Nigeria’s Flawed Electoral Process – Yusuf Ali (SAN)

In an exclusive chat with STEPHEN UBIMAGO,
senior lawyer, Malam Yusuf Ali (SAN), submitted that electronic
voting is the recipe for electoral fraud in Nigeria.

Senior lawyer with versed practice in election petition
litigation, Malam Yusuf Alli (SAN), has stated that historically
the major factor affecting the credibility of the ballot in
Nigeria’s electoral process is that there is a high level of human
intervention and involvement in the process.

According to him, the earlier the Nigerian electoral system
adopted measures to cut back on excessive human involvement, the
quicker the nation will begin to mature its democracy and move the
governance process to the next level.

Speaking to Daily Independent in an exclusive interview, he
expressed concern that no matter how committed the Independent
Electoral Commission (INEC) may be to delivering credible elections
in the future, Nigeria’s electoral process would continue to battle
the test of credibility so long as it is driven less by technology
and more by human agency.

According to him, the usual challenges that beset Nigeria’s
electoral process, such as voter-buying; under-aged voting;
lop-sided or skewed or indeed inadequate distribution of polling
materials, among others, are problems that could readily be
resolved by single-minded deployment and application of technology
solutions.

“Elections are supposed to approximate the people’s wish in
terms of who they desire as their leader,” he said. “If automation
can do it better for us than the current manual process, why
not.”

He added, “Voting ought to be a volitional, independent and
personal activity in which each citizen, in the exercise of his or
her suffrage, implements his power of choice among competing
alternatives.

“Voting is supposedly a discretionary act, a test of wisdom and
knowledge of the issues. It is to that extent that it precludes the
mentally-challenged and under-aged.”

He regretted however that because “democracy heralded as it were
by periodic elections is best practiced or maximized in enlightened
societies,” the high level of illiteracy in Nigeria has also become
one of the major problems facing Nigeria’s electoral and democratic
practice.

“The electoral process must therefore disclose a certain
dynamism that gives the impression that it is ever developing to
capture as best as possible the wishes and will of the people,” he
added.

“If our manual or analogue way of running our elections has
continued to be fraught with challenges, is it not high time we
went digital?”

Asked about the abortive additional amendments to the Electoral
Act 2010, as then championed by the National Assembly ahead of the
last general election, Ali said: “I think that the transparency of
the ballot could have been aided by the proposed reform.

“The more transparent the electoral process is, the less
acrimonious would be its outcome. If the elections are less
acrimonious, the result would be a more stable polity.

“If the President had given his the National Assembly before the
election, I strongly believe that could have had a salutary effect
on the electoral process with its attendant positive effect on the
polity.”

Asked what could be done to achieve a progressively transparent
ballot and, in turn, a more stable country, he maintained, “As much
as possible we should reduce human agency in the conduct of our
elections.

“What do I mean? I mean in the way the voting is conducted as
well as the process of collation of results.”

According to him, “From experience, human intervention in the
electoral process is fraught with a lot of pitfalls, as it has
become a subject of abuse.

“So if the process could be more automated so that voting and
collation of results could take place in real time and the results
published online in real time, I think the better for all us.

“And it is not rocket science. It is just a question of
sincerity of leadership and political will.”

Alli’s call for the automation of the electoral process is
coming against the backdrop of fresh experiences garnered from the
2015 and 2019 general elections.

It would be recalled that in 2015, INEC had proposed the
introduction of additional 30,000 polling units to the already
existing polling unit.

It turned out however that while INEC gave the North additional
21,615 polling units, it gave the South 8,412 units.

The Northwest alone got as many as 7,906 units; the
North-central 6,318 units; and the Northeast 5,291 units.

In the South, while the Southwest was allocated 4,160 units; the
South-South was allocated 3,087 units; while the remainder was
allotted to the South-East.

The Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, which had only 881, 472
registered voters, had additional 1,200 polling units allocated to
it compared to the paltry allocation of 1,167 units that went to
the Southeast that boasts 7.7 million registered voters.

Consequent upon this development, voting became quite a
forbidden, frustrating and discouraging exercise in the South East
compared to the FCT and the North generally.

This is because the relatively fewer polling units meant they
would be besieged by a throng of people competing to exercise their
suffrage at those units.

Thus, many who might not be able to endure the throng, might
likely go back to their homes and not vote owing to
frustration.

Regrettable, it was same Voter Register used for the 2015
election and the 2015 blueprint used for the distribution of
polling units and electoral materials that were deployed for the
2019 election.

On the problem of under-aged voters, the senior lawyer said the
challenge is formidable but not insurmountable. He stressed that
the solution lies in the sincerity of leadership and political
will.

He added that remedy may be found in tallying the voter
registration process with the national Identification system.

According to him, “It is all about our system of birth and death
registration. Most people do not even know their ages. School
registration age could have been an ideal place to start from. But
how many school-age children are in school in the North?”

“So, we have to be able to look at the issue of registration of
birth and death and the enforcement of provision for such
registration.

“And then we must ensure that the National ID card sees the
light of the day. Once you have your National ID card it would
display your age.

“Just looking at the matter on the surface, we will not be able
to solve it holistically. So it is not simply a question of
altering the Electoral Act to tackle under-age voting.”

Ali also joined issues with the Justice Uwais Panel on Electoral
Reform, whose Report had recommended the establishment of Electoral
Offences Commission and Tribunal, saying it amounts to unhealthy
duplication of institutions.

He said, “I think that would only amount to mere duplication of
institutions. Do you know that as we speak we are still talking
about the proper funding of the judiciary?

“Instead of talking about establishing new Electoral Offences
Tribunals, why don’t we rather strengthen existing institutions of
the judiciary?

“We can start by employing more judges, so that you could have a
whole battery of them to man electoral offences courts for
electoral offences matters.

“Personally, I do not think that proliferation of institutions
is the way to go.”

He equally disagreed with former president of the Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA), Chief Joseph Daudu (SAN), who in a paper
delivered before the Ikorodu branch of the NBA, called for reforms
of the Electoral Act as to oust the power of the police to
prosecute electoral offences under section 150, reserving same in
INEC.

He argued that under the Police Act the power of the police to
arrest and prosecute criminal offences is omnibus and not limited
by the Electoral Act in respect to electoral offences.

“As far as I am concerned nothing precludes the police from
exercising the power of arrest under the Police Act. The Police Act
has general applicability,” he said.

“If you commit an offence before a police officer, he or she can
arrest you there and then and afterward commit you to trial in the
face of compelling evidence against you.

“I don’t believe the Electoral Act should take away that power
from the police just because the offence took place under an
electoral condition.

“If somebody wants to manipulate the vote, or steal ballot boxes
or what not, are you saying that the Electoral Act debars the
police from arresting and prosecuting the offender?”

On the abortive bill proposed by National Assembly to amend the
Electoral Act in respect to sequence of election, and sundry other
reforms, he said it was a laudable move, although frustrated by the
President.

He lampooned politicians who prevailed on the president not to
assent to the amendment, saying if the bill had been made to pass
into law, the result would have been the deepening of the nation’s
democracy.

“Society is dynamic. Law is dynamic, so even the Electoral Act
should be dynamic. Any action that would help to make our elections
more reflective of the people’s will, should be encouraged,” he
said.

He added, “If you are a popular person, it does not matter how
the election timetable is ordered, because any which way you will
win.

“Our key interest is how we can have an electoral system that
truly reflects the will of the people. I assume that the president
is a democrat. To that extent I do not think a true democrat will
be averse to a move calculated to sharpen the electoral
process.

“All the hoopla is misdirected. Those persons who advised the
president not to assent to the bill meant no good.

“Those that argued that the move was targeted at whittling the
president’s chance at the poll were defeatist.

“What matters is whether the action is procedurally and
substantially compliant with the law. You can only take issues with
the action if it bordered on illegality not personality.

Culled from Independent

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!