BEVERLY HILLS, February 13, (THEWILL) – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ruled out electronic and diaspora voting in the 2019 general elections.
This was disclosed by the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, on Monday, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance to defend the commission’s 2017 budget.
Yakubu told the Senate that until the Constitution was amended and necessary logistics put in place, the commission cannot delve into electronic and diaspora voting saying that electronic and diaspora voting do not only lack constitutional backing but were also expensive to execute.
He revealed that work was in progress to develop a strategic plan with a view to coming out with the financial requirements for the 2019 poll and other pending elections including the Anambra governorship election and Anambra Central Senatorial District by-election.
A member of the committee, Senator Yakubu Abubakar, asked Yakubu if INEC would key into the reported breakthrough by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, (NASENI), in the invention of electronic voting in the 2019 general election.
Yakubu replied that since the news of the electronic voting machine invention came up, he had not been either formally or informally informed by NASENI adding that even if he was formally informed, to adopt electronic voting in the election, the possibility would not be feasible because the device should be tested to certify the efficiency.
He added that the device should also be produced in large quantity to cover the country’s numerous polling units but noted that for INEC to adopt the system the constitution needed to be amended to give it legal backing adding that the cost of running the method was very high.
Yakubu revealed that for the past three years, INEC’s annual budget had stood at N45 billion but insisted that the commission was yet to know how much the 2019 general election would gulp.
He however noted that he was already embarking on a strategic plan with a view to coming out with the actual financial figure the 2019 elections and others would cost the country but declared that INEC’s purse had been deeply drained following unscheduled elections in the last one year.
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