• Ethiopia moves to introduce digital voting
Unified Nigeria Youth Forum (UNYF) has called for the development and deployment of secure online voting platforms to address low voter turnout and logistical challenges during the 2027 elections.

The forum said the time had come for Nigeria to embrace technology in its electoral process, starting with legal reforms that would allow both diaspora voting and digital participation by eligible citizens within the country.

It also called for the emergence of a youth-led political movement to reshape the country’s leadership landscape ahead of the 2027 General Elections.

UNYF President, Toriah Olajide Filani, in a statement yesterday, raised concerns over what it said was the country’s slow progress despite 26 years of uninterrupted democratic governance.

Filani said that although Nigeria had enjoyed democratic stability since 1999, that achievement had not translated into tangible development in key sectors.

He demanded a more proactive youth-led political movement ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Saying that the country had been stagnating in sectors such as mining, health, agriculture, security, and power, Filani observed that the dividends of democracy had been unevenly distributed despite ballooning allocations.

MEANWHILE, the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has announced that digital voting will be implemented for the country’s next general elections, scheduled for mid-2026.

Speaking at a forum on the integration of digital technologies into the country’s electoral system for the first time yesterday, the chairperson of the board, Melatwork Hailu, said the upcoming elections would be fully supported by an integrated digital system, marking a significant step toward the modernisation of Ethiopia’s electoral process.

He said NEBE was rolling out a range of digital initiatives to enhance transparency, efficiency and accessibility of elections nationwide.

“These include the launch of comprehensive digital platforms for both candidate registration and voter enrollment, two critical pillars of the electoral system.”

The chairperson reaffirmed the board’s commitment to leveraging technology to strengthen democratic institutions and build a robust, technology-driven election management system as a major milestone toward conducting fair and credible elections. ß