By Prince Osuagwu
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| Rufai.....The man behind the success |
The Nigeria Society of Engineers
(NSE) at the weekend successfully conducted its yearly general elections online
real-time through an e-voting system manufactured locally by engineers at
Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT).
The elections were monitored by
participants and voters online either on their laptops or smartphones that are
internet enabled.
Prior to the election, data of
the members were captured electronically and biometric information taken.
At the venue of the election, the
data was accessed electronically and accreditation was smooth.
NIGCOMSAT provided mobile
internet via Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) for connectivity to broadcast
events online real-time on the NigComSat-1R satellite.
By this means, participants and
contestants monitored the procedures online real-time as voting was updated on
the dedicated website for the election as each voter cast his or her ballot.
The elections were conducted at
the Kwara Hotels, Ilorin
and transmitted live on NTA Network. A visibly excited NSE President, Engr.
Mustapha Shehu Balarabe said, the engineers have done it again, adding that
“this innovation from our engineers at NIGCOMSAT is commendable. It is novel
and we are the pioneers, and this has proved that so many good things could
come out of Nigeria
and we engineers are pioneers in this regard of e-voting.”
He said engineers have done what
could be adopted by government in future general elections that is likely to
save the Country from incessant huge capital flights.
This, he said will free the
Country from post-election rancour and litigations by those who lost and think
that the elections have been rigged in favour of their opponents.
Chairman of the NSE Elections
Committee, Engr. Charles Mbanefo said he was very happy with the outcome of the
election “that it was online real-time made the committee’s job light because
those who won and those who lost saw the transparency of the process. It was
free and fair. Even people who were not at the venue monitored the election
because it was web-based and results were updated real-time on the dedicated
website for the election.” Mbanefo said that the NSE election which ran on the
NIGCOMSAT developed e-voting system was a test-case and it was a very
successful process.
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| e-Voting process in Nigeria |
President, Institute of Software
Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Dr. Chris Uwaje captured the situation this
way: “It shows that indigenous technology is capable of meeting global
competition. Now that NIGCOMSAT Limited has demonstrated this in very exemplary
format, government should constitute a national e-voting committee. NIGCOMSAT
should be commended.”
National Secretary, Nigeria Union
of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Shuaibu Leman Usman in his reaction to the NIGCOMSAT
breakthrough in NSE e-voting said “my view is that we should continue to look
inward. Satellite business is a very sensitive issue and Nigeria
cannot continue to rely on foreign satellites.”
He described the e-voting
election by NSE as a breakthrough for Nigeria. “I therefore commend
NIGCOMSAT for this innovation and urge the company to partner with the media in
this area for national development and for humanity.”
One of the candidates who
eventually emerged as one of three Vice Presidents said he was overwhelmed by
the e-voting system because it corrected several misgivings of the past.
Indeed, he said when he contested
last year, he was sure of victory but something strange happened and he lost.
“But this e-voting system by
NIGCOMSAT is comforting because every contestant knows his or her fate online
real-time. This is very fantastic.”
NSE had earlier rejected manual
voting hence the adoption of the e-voting which to most of them was fool-proof.
The e-voting platform was
designed, developed and produced by the Micro Elections Centre (MEC) at
NIGCOMSAT.
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