Deputy governor: Kaduna’s 2018 LG polls proved electronic voting can be safely conducted

Hadiza Balarabe, Kaduna deputy governor, says the state has proven that electronic voting can be safely conducted in Nigeria.

In 2018, Kaduna state made history by being the first to use electronic voting when it conducted its local government council election using e-voting.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ sensitisation programme organised by the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM) on Thursday, Balarabe said the state government has made considerable investments in electronic voting.

She said the government considers the investment “a worthwhile deployment of technology towards ensuring that votes count and that the results reflect the actual preferences that the voters expressed”.

The deputy governor commended KAD-SIECOM for its effort to make Kaduna state the pioneer in electronic voting.

She added that the state government welcomes the electoral body’s decision to learn from the challenges encountered in 2018 by reconfiguring the electronic voting machines to integrate the card reader, and ensuring that each voter card can only be used once.

The deputy governor, while maintaining that the Nasir el-Rufai administration has demonstrated its commitment to a viable and democratically elected local government system, said the state has proved that elections can be conducted electronically.

“In 2018, the Kaduna state government introduced electronic voting for the local government elections of May and June 2018,” she said.

“This required considerable investments, and we consider it a worthwhile deployment of technology towards ensuring that votes count and that the results that are declared reflect the actual preferences that the voters expressed.

“Across the state, voters found it easy to use the electronic voting machines, thereby proving that user interface is not a problem and that elections in Nigeria can be safely conducted electronically.”

The deputy governor pointed out that the deployment of electronic voting was not without its challenges, “which had everything to do with the baser aspects of the attitudes of some politicians.”.

‘’INEC was unable to loan us its card readers for the 2018 local government elections, leaving the elections officials with no option than to rely on manual accreditation,’’ she said.

Balarabe, however, said with the reconfiguration of the electronic voting machines to integrate the card reader, KAD-SIECOM has now solved this problem.