INEC To Use E-collation For Kogi, Bayelsa Elections – Card Reader Designer
E-collation system is used to transmit election results from the polling units and wards to ensure easy and transparent collation of results.
The INEC director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Engr. Chidi Nwafor said this yesterday in Abuja during the opening ceremony of 2015 Engineering Week and Annual General Meeting organised by the Abuja branch of Nigerian Society of Engineers.
Nwafor who is the brain behind the design, development and deployment of the card reader used during the 2015 general election, said apart from the e-collation that INEC would use the permanent voters card, card readers and improved systems to ensure free and transparent elections.
According to him, “ We are putting a system that when the results come from the polling units to the ward, the ward assistant who already has a software that has been developed and tested will compute it in the developed software which will give scores of political parties and the percentage scored.
“With this, the elections in Bayelsa and Kogi will be difficult to rig, so Nigerians should expect better governorship election since there will be an improvement on the card reader.”
Presenting a paper titled, “Technological Innovations in 2015 General Election, the Role of Engineers “, he said despite improvement in the conduct of 2015 elections that INEC would not enforce the use of e-voting since its was not backed by the law.
He however attributed the success of the 2015 general election to the resilience of the former chairman of the commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega to digitalise voters register; introduction of permanent voters card; and card reader. He assured that the commission would do better in 2019 general election.
On underage voting, he said, “There is no technology available in the field to remove underage voting but the only way it can be removed is through manual method, so we are appealing to the community leaders to support us.”
Nwafor further revealed that INEC has the largest data base in Africa even as he regretted that engineers have not been able to solve societal needs by the application of scientific knowledge.
leadership.ng/news
Post a Comment