Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the African Motion Congress (AAC), has acknowledged that credible and clear elections would dramatically reshape Nigeria’s political panorama.
Sowore spoke on Wednesday throughout an interview, commenting on the controversy surrounding amendments to the Electoral Act, notably the provisions on the transmission and collation of election outcomes.
The Senate, on Tuesday, accredited digital transmission of outcomes however retained a clause permitting handbook collation in areas with restricted web entry, a call that has drawn criticism nationwide.
In response to Sowore, lawmakers are proof against strengthening electoral safeguards as a result of real reforms would threaten their political survival.
“This declare that some states would not have community protection is simply one other excuse,” he mentioned.
“They’re afraid of clear elections as a result of as soon as elections turn into actually clear, 90 per cent of these sitting within the Nationwide Meeting and even these in different elected places of work, together with the presidency, won’t be there.”
He described the choice to retain handbook collation as a refined try and dilute the affect of digital transmission of outcomes.
“The way in which the modification was carried out is intelligent by half,” Sowore mentioned, including that the clause opens the door to a return to the normal, compromised system of declaring outcomes.
He argued that counting on handbook procedures undermines public confidence in elections and leaves room for manipulation.
Sowore additionally criticised the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee’s (INEC) outcome administration infrastructure, notably the IREV platform, saying it not displays world greatest practices.
“I’m not impressed by these outdated preparations,” he mentioned. “By now, Nigeria must be taking a look at what nations like India are doing. India conducts elections for about 900 million registered voters utilizing digital voting, and the method is near foolproof.”
Noting that Nigeria has round 90 million registered voters, he mentioned the nation shouldn’t have any technological excuse to undertake digital voting.
“We already perform delicate transactions digitally on daily basis, transferring cash, accessing private information, conducting safe on-line actions, but we nonetheless depend on handbook methods for selecting political leaders,” Sowore added.
He warned that except Nigeria embraces deeper technological reforms in its electoral course of, public belief in elections will proceed to say no, and democratic progress will stay restricted.