Group canvasses legalization of electronic voting in elections

A non-governmental organisation, Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE) has called on the federal government to put measures in place to ensure electronic voting in general elections.

Speaking at an event for media partners, the Executive Secretary of ACE, Comrade Mma Odi said electronic voting would resolve most of the challenges and irregularities surrounding Nigeria’s elections.

Besides, she asserted that this would give Nigerians in Diaspora the opportunity to vote to vote.Odi said: “Electronic voting would take care of most of the challenges of irregularities in our general elections and it will also enable Nigerians in Diaspora to vote the candidate of their choice wherever they reside”.

The organisation also called on the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly to look into the lapses in the amendment of the Constitution and Electoral Act with a view to ensuring that the problem of violence in elections were addressed.

According to her, one of the ways ACE can assist them was to look at all the amendments that have been suggested by the Electoral Reform Committee or the amendment to the constitutional framework that has been suggested by the 2014 National Conference and all the key issues that were harmonised by the Belgore report.

“ACE recognised that the issue of constitutional reforms is both a function of the National Assembly and also a function of the state Assemblies and also a function of the people. One of the things is to find ways of decentralising issues so that we can reach as many states Assembly as possible.

“When the documents came to them they are already familiar with the issues and also familiar with the civil society position on some of these issues because the states Assembly are weak and we must also find ways of engaging them,” she said

Odi further stated that ACE organised a nationwide public opinion polls to enable legislators have a better understanding of public priorities and consensus on issues of electoral and constitution reform for citizens to be informed on the direction of the reform process as well as on the generation of a reliable data.

ACE-Nigeria was set up in August 2006 to ensure credible elections and good governance in Nigeria, and it brought a new dimension to the struggle by successfully creating a national momentum in 2007 general elections by reaching out to large constituencies in charting the way forward.