TECHDIGEST – With no fewer than 3,471 likes, 783 retweets and 607 comments on his Twitter space, where he shared photos from his recent presidential declaration in Abuja under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s former Vice President Abubakar Atiku is ahead many other contenders in the 2023 Presidential race, at least online.

Atiku’s Facebook page elicited over 2, 000 reactions in the ‘Comment Section’ and more than 3,000 shares.

READ ALSO : Osinbajo Flags off Edo Tech Park for Software Engineers, Developers

Former Governor of Lagos state and National leader of the All Progressives Party (APC), Bola Tinubu, received above 208 retweets and 647 likes for his Presidential bid on his Twitter handle.

But here’s the killer score! Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra state, also of the PDP, has lapped up 41, 000 retweets and 108,000 likes on Twitter since declaring his intention to run for the highest political office in Nigeria. There are over 27, 000 reactions on his ‘Comment Section’ and 3,000 shares following a post on this in his Facebook page.

Others are still not so feasible online. They include Governor of Nyesom Wike (PDP) of Rivers state and Governor David Umahi (APC) of Ebonyi state.

Current Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, even though has not made an official declaration to run for the office under the APC, has an active online community making numerous retweets, and reshares across several social media handles to make him extremely visible online.

Read more : ITedgenews

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TECHDIGEST – Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna state has affirmed faith in electronic voting (eVoting) as the state, for the second time, deployed Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) to conduct its local government election that held over the weekend (Saturday).

The state pioneered the use of EVM in Nigeria in 2018 for the same local government election to set a precedence on the continent only after Kenya. At the national level, there is still a debate in Nigeria over the workability of eVoting.

Government needs to allay fears about electronic voting. Electronic and physical processes can run side by side as there is no complete guaranty against hacking, the governor told Channel TV today as guest of its Sunrise programme.

He said the use of technology in election cannot be downplayed and remains critical to promoting election integrity and boosting voter’s confidence.

“People are just concerned about transmission of results which is just one aspect,” said the governor while insisting that it was impossible to alter the election results across all critical components of eVoting.

In 2018, the state reworked its electoral laws, Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission Law No. 10 of 2012 and other Matters Ancillary into the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission Law, 2018 to allow for electronic voting in the state.

Under Section 16 (3) of the state law, “the State Independent Electoral Commission shall have the power to determine the method by which voters may be verified and accredited for the purpose of casting their votes.”

It states that: “Such verification and voting shall be through the use of approved electronic devices, smart card reader and electronic voting machine.”

The election results for the 19 local governments are still coming in. But so far, the All-Progressives Congress (APC) has won in 15 local governments while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won in only one.

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TECHDIGEST – The Chairman of Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM), Dr. Saratu Binta Dikko-Audu says the EVM software has been upgraded to increase the credibility of the election process, making multiple voting impossible

History was made in 2018 when Kaduna State conducted Nigeria’s first and Africa’s second electronic voting elections, placing Nigeria among the league of countries that have used electronic voting system. Being the first to champion the use of such technology in Nigeria, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State says he is poised to make another breakthrough by perfecting electronic voting come September 4th, 2021 when residents will go to the polls to elect their local government chairmen and councillors.

In 2018, Kaduna State Government substituted the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission Law No. 10 of 2012 and other Matters Ancillary with the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission Law, 2018 to pave way for electronic voting in the state. This single legislation has placed Nigeria among a league of few countries where e-voting is still practiced.

Daily Trust reports that section 16 (3) of the state law provides that the State Independent Electoral Commission shall have power to determine the method by which voters may be verified and accredited for the purpose of casting their votes. It states that “such verification and voting shall be through the use of approved electronic device, smart card reader and electronic voting machine.”

And so, Electronic Voting Machines popularly known as EVMs were used to champion this cause in 2018 albeit challenges and allegations of multiple voting. This time however, the state electoral body says it has perfected the machine to eliminate that particular challenge.

Speaking with Daily Trust, the Chairman Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM), Dr. Saratu Binta Dikko-Audu, said the software has been upgraded to increase the credibility of the election process, adding that there will be no room for multiple voting.

“The major improvement we have done is that once you have voted once, the machine will capture the card, it can view the card, it won’t see the chip in the card but it will deny that card access to vote a second time, so this time around, we have cancelled multiple voting so whoever thinks he can take the machine and continue to vote over and over again, they won’t have that access,” she said.

Dr. Audu however said accreditation will still be done manually like it was done in 2018 using the voter register. She said, “our assistant presiding officer will check the voter register and check your voter card then mark you on the voter register and mark your thumb with an indelible ink so that if you approach another polling unit or the machine again, once that finger is marked, you won’t be allowed access to a voting machine.”

How the Electronic Voting Machine works

Ahead of the September 4th elections, the state electoral body says it intends to train about 18,000 adhoc staff comprising of presiding officers, assistant presiding officer, clacks, supervisory presiding officers, ward returning officers and local government returning officers for the smooth operation of the EVM and overall conduct of the election.

Daily Trust reports that in 2018, when the machine was first deployed, residents had voted after a presiding officer uses his authorization card to authorize access to the machine. However, with an upgraded software, Dr. Saratu Binta Dikko-Audu said the presiding officer will still authorize voters but each voter will vote using their own Persona Voters Card (PVCs) to open the platform then proceed to select the logos of the parties of their candidates of choice.

The EVM is a computerized box-like machine with a “Cancel and Ok” button that comes with an attaching ballot box. According to the SIECOM Chairman, it is easy to use even for people living in the villages, uneducated and older people. “It’s simpler than the ordinary analog phone that uses buttons. You don’t have to punch any button, all you need to do is to select the logo of the candidate you want to vote for, then press OK. That’s all, it’s very simple,” she said.

Giving a run-through of how the machine operates, Dr. Audu said the presiding officer will first set up the machine for voting which will be done in front of party agents, security agents and others who are present at the start of voting.

She said the machine first opens the page for the chairmanship election and the voter can select the logo of the party of his/her candidate by just a tap. “Then the screen will enlarge that logo and if that is the party of your candidate, then there are two buttons; ok and cancel, if you tap the ok button which is the green, as soon as you do that, your vote is captured.”

She said on the left side of the screen, a transparent screen will show the tally for which the logo of the party selected is being generated adding that the slip is cut and it drops into the ballot box which is at the bottom of the EVM, thus ending the voting process for the chairmanship. Our correspondent gathered that soon after the chairmanship vote is captured, the screen of the machine automatically goes to that of the Counsellorship page and the same process is repeated.

“If, however you make a mistake in selecting the logo of your candidate’s party, you can cancel. If you press the cancel button, your vote has not been recorded yet, your vote is only recorded when you press the ok button,” she said, adding that: “If you press the cancel button, it takes you back to the home page and then you can make proper selection and you will see the tally slip being generated before it drops into the ballot box.”

However, if for any reason an electorate feels the need to participate in only one category of the election, the chairman said all that is needed to be done was to press the cancel button twice. “It will ask you “are you sure you don’t want to vote,” then you press ok and you cancel the second time and that’s it, the machine shuts down and you can put your PVC as many times as you like, it will not open again until the presiding officer comes and another voter approaches the voting machine.”

Daily Trust reports that each EVM is powered by a battery that can last up to 16 hours but should there be any reason for the battery to fail, the KADSIECOM chairman, “we have generators deployed to every ward in the entire state so all you need to do is to call the presiding officer and he will get a generator within minutes and the election will continue.”

How results will be transmitted

Issue of transmission of election results, the main contention that has been in the front burner of Nigeria’s amended electoral act could still pose a challenge in Kaduna, especially around areas with poor network coverage. However, the state’s electoral body says that issue has tackled as the negotiations have been made with service providers to boost networks on election day.

The chairman said, “even if for any reason there is no network where the machine is and the booster does not get there, as soon as the machine gets into a network area, when network improves, it will transmit to the server.”

According to her, when the EVM captures votes, it records them in its memory and that data can be saved on a flash drive through a USB port. “On the machines itself, there are already three levels of security for your votes; there is the paper tally, there is a memory in the machine which you transmit into a flash drive and so whether you transmit or not, the data is already captured. We also have the issue of transmission to our server which is done by network,” she said.

Opposition party welcomes development

Ahead of the local government election, the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has expressed satisfaction with the use of technology to conduct the election but stressed that to ensure transparency, printouts should be made from all the machines at the beginning and end of voting and given to party delegates.

The PDP’s fears were however put to rest when the commission’s boss, Dr. Audu, said at the end of the election, the presiding officer will print out a summary of activities on the machine which captures all of the votes to be given to every party agent, security agents those who will wait till end of election.

“So, you can take your summaries and if there is any contention, before the machine leaves the polling unit, you can actually open it up, take out those tallies that were dropping into the box, sort them out and physically count them,” she said.

Speaking further, the PDP’s Secretary in Kaduna, Alhaji Ibrahim Wusono, said the use of the EVM is a welcome development but said this is only if problems encountered during the conduct of the 2018 Local Government Elections have been addressed.

“One of the main issues is where the machine allows for multiple voting and a single person can vote as much as he wants without the machine indicating which resulted to the rigging of the election by the ruling party,” he said.

Wusono however said if what was showcased at the stakeholders meeting organised by KADSIECOM, is truly genuine, the PDP was in support of the use of the machine.

Speaking earlier at a stakeholders’ sensitisation programme organised by KADSIECOM, Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, said the state government has demonstrated its commitment to a viable and democratically elected local government system and that elections in Nigeria can be conducted electronically.

She said INEC was unable to loan the state its card readers for the 2018 local government elections but said with the EVM has now been reconfigured to integrate the card reader.

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TECH DIGEST – Members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the House of Representatives have staged a walkout over the refusal of the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, to grant their prayer on the Federal Government’s Twitter Ban.

Gbajabiamila had earlier asked relevant committees of the House to investigate the matter within 10 days.

Leader of the PDP caucus, Kingsley Chinda, much later, raised a point of order to make an additional prayer that the House asks the Federal Government to lift the ban pending when the House carries out the probe.

Chinda noted that the implication is that the ban would remain for 10 days, which means the rights of Nigerians would be kept in abeyance during the period.

Gbajabiamila, however, cited part of the Standing Orders of the House stating that a matter that had been concluded by the parliament cannot be revisited for a debate.

The Speaker, therefore, ruled Chinda out of order, a decision that did not go down well the members of the opposition.

Insisting on speaking and several leaders of the House shutting him down, Chinda led other PDP members out of the chamber.

They later addressed journalists to say the action was in defence of Nigerians.

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