The Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) has
weighed in on the debate about Nigeria’s capability to introduce postal voting
ahead of the 2023 elections.
In an interview with TheCable, Festus Okoye, a national
commissioner, said although the commission is committed to deepening the use of
technology in the electoral process, postal voting would require a “functional
and robust postal system”.
But an official of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), who
declined to be named because she was not authorised to speak, said the service
does not have the infrastructure to support postal vote in the next general
election.
Okoye, who is the chairman of INEC information and voter
education committee, said the system would require amending the relevant
electoral laws.
What is postal voting? Ballot papers are mailed to voters
who vote and return by post for onward transmission to the election centres. In
the United States where almost half of the voters – 65 million people – voted
by mail in the just concluded presidential election, the ballot papers, upon
arrival at the processing centres, are photographed, converted to text and
sorted.
With just about 20 months left before the next general
election in Nigeria, some have argued that postal voting would help in
addressing some loopholes in the electoral process especially with regards to
violence at the polling units.
Okoye, however, disclosed that Nigeria’s postal system
is “not in the best shape” for electorate to vote by mail, and if that is
addressed, another challenge would be amending the electoral act.
He said although the electoral act empowers INEC to determine
electoral procedures, the commission is also restrained by parts of the law
that prescribe specific routine for the conduct of elections.
For instance, sections 49(1) and 52(3), respectively,
require voters to be present at the polling unit and that votes must be cast
through open secret ballots with the use of ballot boxes.
Okoye said: “The commission has made elaborate
recommendations to the national assembly to amend sections 48, 49,50, 53, 54
and other ancillary provisions to introduce electronic voting machines and
other technological solutions in the electoral process.
“The commission will also embark on comprehensive and far
reaching update of the existing voters register and the continuous registration
of voters. The commission and the Nigerian people are attuned to the deepening
of technology in the electoral process.
“We want to introduce electronic voting machines and
gradually migrate to Internet voting and the use of other electronic platforms
and solutions. Mail-in ballots and postal voting depend on a functional and
robust postal system.
“Our postal system is not in the best shape and did not
fundamentally upgrade in line with technological changes in the world. Even in
advanced democracies, the postal system still struggles to cope with the volume
of mail in ballots and postal voting.”
He said the chances of adopting mail-in ballots and postal
voting in Nigeria is “rather remote” and will involve “a change in the
electoral legal framework”.
‘NIPOST NOT READY FOR POSTAL VOTING’
Franklyn Alao, NIPOST’s general
manager for corporate communications was unavailable for cooments, but an official of the service disclosed the agency is not ready to be deployed for postal voting.
The official said this is is because of the lack of adequate
investment in its operations coupled with security challenges.
She also spoke of the sophisticatication of the US Postal
Service (USPS) which TheCable found out has 31,300 post offices compared to
NIPOST’s 955.
She said: “The government has not invested in NIPOST for
them to have the capacity to handle that. They have to look at the welfare of
our staff. If the staff are not adequately taken care of, they can compromise.
“The US postal service is one of the highest paid
organisations in the US. But at NIPOST, we are just collecting the normal civil
service salary.
“During our own
elections, you know there used to be violence and we are not adequattely protected
for that; they can burn down our offices and hijack our mail vehicles along the
road. We don’t have the security to handle that for now.”
Another senior member of NIPOST staff said that
voting by mail will be beneficial to many Nigerians and will also lead to a
spike in number of votes in elections.
“Mails can be sent to people; they will just do their voting
and send it back (and) it will be less stressful,” said the official who also
asked not to be named.
“They won’t have to leave the comfort of their home to go
and queue up in the sun coupled with the violence in the polling stations.”
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Stupid! You have not been able to handle postcards and letters you want to jump on the bandwagon of postal votes. You have not been able to deal with votes of those with valid PVCs. You want to make excuses with COVID-19 very convenient. Just because it is controversial and will be a convenient way to use to rig the 2023 elections. You guys are Jokers!
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