Immediate past National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has described as utterly useless, the idea of electronic voting without electronic transmission of results, because approval for the former was impossible without the latter.
Jega, who carpeted the Senate and the House of Representatives over their alleged attempt to undermine electoral integrity by whittling down the powers of the election management body andsubjecting its decision to the National Communication Commission (NCC), a body under the Presidency, said it was a crazy and senseless decision.
Speaking with THISDAY, Jega re-affirmed his earlier comments about the amendments by the two arms of the National Assembly, describing it as crazy and encroaching on the independence and integrity of INEC, saying, “what the National Assembly did is senseless.”
According to him, “What the National Assembly is doing is senseless, if not a crazy amendment. How can you make the decision of INEC subject to confirmation, concurrence and approval of the NCC? A body under the presidency? And what has the National Assembly – a legislative body got to do with executive decision of INEC?
“Without approval for Electronic Transmission of Results (ETR) their approval of the Electronic Voting System (EVS) is virtually useless,” the former INEC chairman said, noting that the better alternative is for the Senate to grant INEC the powers to deploy to use, both the EVS and ETR.
He explained that Senate should grant INEC the power to deploy both electronic voting system and electronic transmission of results as it deems necessary of how and when INEC could.
For example, Jega explained that, should “INEC decide to deploy ETR ahead of EVS, and if, and when, conditions are appropriate, it can then deploy both simultaneously. But, as I said, EVS, which the Senators approved for INEC, can’t be deployed without ETR.