Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, on Monday, said politicians may sabotage the powers granted to the Independent National Electoral Commission by the Electoral Act, 2022 to conduct elections using electronic means during the 2023 general elections.
Igini, in an interview with journalists in Abuja, raised concern over the menace of voter apathy in Nigeria, attributing it to the inability of political parties and candidates to deliver on the promises upon which voters drew faith in democracy, and not about insufficient registered voters.
He stated, “The new electoral law which empowers INEC to conduct elections using electronic means is a welcome development. The commission will deploy several of its technological innovations that have been used in the various off-season and bye-elections for the 2023 elections.
“As we all know, the implementation is usually the devil; there are political elites out there that may likely fund the sabotage of every good innovation for the election. As always, the commission, despite its demonstrable commitment to its mandate, is not in control of all the actors whose actions or inactions will determine the success of the 2023 elections.
“What we have done so far as a commission with these innovations is to reduce the degree of human agency and insulate the process from manipulation with the deployment of technology.
“For instance, unlike in the past, polling units results declared and uploaded to the cloud can no longer be manipulated or altered at the wards, local government areas or any of the stages of collation.
“This is a massive blow to all places and axes of electoral evil across the country where invidious votes are usually manufactured to change the will of the people. Certainly, the commission’s incremental deployment of technological innovations will help largely to put the outcome of elections on a positive trajectory.
“From our record of deployment so far in the various off-season elections, these innovations eliminated and minimised the human elements that lead to electoral irregularities, malpractices and fraud.”
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