Electronic Voting Is The Answer To Electoral Violence – Akin Orebiyi

Former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Akin Orebiyi has backed electronic voting in future elections claiming it presents loads of advantages that tackle electoral issues.

The ex INEC boss revealed this while assessing the just-concluded 2019 general elections in the country.

His words, We should be devising programmes, putting in place technologies, applying them to overcome our electoral problems.

“If we can be using mobile phone today, which reach anybody in the world to conduct businesses, to do banking, to call people, transmit photographs and other information, why are we not ready for what will bring tremendous solutions to electoral causes.

“For me, any day, I will vote for the voting machines. Electronic voting has overwhelming advantages.”

“I will say that the conduct of the 2019 elections has been impressive.

“The preparations of the electoral management body and also the execution of the plans are good, although there were few hitches here and there.

“We should expect such in the conduct of such a massive project across a big country like Nigeria.

“On the overall, it’s been a successful conduct and an improvement on what we saw in 2015 general elections. However, in this country, we should be moving up, that is the essence of development.”

“We should interrogate the issue of low turnout. I can’t comprehend it.

“The stakeholders – INEC, political parties, media, CSOs, must come together and ask why is it that less that 30 million voters came out to vote out of over 80 million registered voters.

“In spite of the massive mobilisation, what is it that makes people register, collect their PVCs and fail to come out and vote?

“It is one of the issues that all of us need to address, interrogate very well going forward to 2023 general elections.”