By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will tutor its Liberia counterpart on the deployment of technology to enhance the credibility and transparency of elections, report says.
Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu made this promise when he received a delegation of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of the Republic of Liberia, led by Davidetta Browne Lansanah to understudy Nigeria’s electoral system.
He expressed happiness over the decision of the Liberia electoral commission to move away from analogue to technology in the conduct of elections.
“I wish to assure you that we will continue to strengthen the long-standing partnership with Liberia in the spirit of peer support. You may recall that twice in the last three years, our technical staff worked with your Commission on the register of voters. The initial assistance facilitated the conclusion of your 2017 General Election.
“Again, our staff returned to Liberia for the same reason ahead of the mid-term Senatorial election and a constitutional referendum held in December last year. Based on the lessons learnt from both exercises, our technical staff recommended that Liberia should introduce the biometric registration of voters.
“I am glad to note that you have decided to move away from the manual register by conducting a pilot biometric voter registration as early as November this year. It is also gratifying that you have chosen to under-study Nigeria’s processes in detail, particularly the choice of biometric technology ahead of your next General Election which, like Nigeria, holds in 2023.
“The truth is that nations are increasingly moving away from the manual processes by deploying more technology to further guarantee electoral credibility. In Nigeria, we are convinced that the use of appropriate technology is one of the best guarantees for the transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
“As requested, we will share our experience with you to enable you to make an informed decision for Liberia. In our interactions over the next two days, we will demonstrate to you and your team the processes for both the online and physical registration, the equipment used for the exercise, staff requirement and training, the procedure for cleaning up the field data, the compilation and printing of the register for elections and the system of storage and retrieval of information.
“We will also take you to some of the registration centres in Abuja for a practical and on-the-spot experience of the exercise,”Mahmood said.
He added that: “Four weeks ago, the Commission commenced the CVR exercise with the introduction of the online pre-registration through a dedicated portal designed by the Commission. This has enabled eligible Nigerians to begin the process online before they come physically to complete their registration at the designated centres where their biometrics will be captured.
“Over one million Nigerians pre-registered online in just four weeks. For those unable to commence the process online, dedicated centres have been established nationwide for in-person or physical registration which commenced on Monday this week. The two methods will continue simultaneously for the next one year before the exercise is suspended to enable the Commission to update the register in readiness for our 2023 General Election”.
