The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will deploy adequate technology for the 2019 general election, the Commission’s chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, has said. Prof. Yakubu, who led his national commissioners on a visit to the Senate on Thursday, said the latest amendment to Electoral Act has given the commission ample room to use electronic voting at the poll. The Senate had last week, approved electronic voting for the 2019 general elections among other amendments.

Prof. Yakubu said, “This is the most technologically friendly amendment to the Electoral Act in the history of this country. All the encumbrances to the deployment of the technology in elections have now been addressed. So INEC has the free hand to fully employ appropriate technology in the conduct of our elections. This is all the more remarkable because the deployment of technology helped the 2015 general elections, and I want to assure you that we are going to deepen the use of technology in the conduct of elections.”

The INEC chief expressed satisfaction with the Senate for the timely passage of the amendment long before the 2019 elections, contrary to past amendments that used to come two days to election. “One of the problems we have had as a nation is that amendments to the Electoral Act come on the eve of elections. For instance, the last amendment was assented to two days to the last general elections.

“So the document only came to light after the elections. But here we are, two clear years to the elections, we have the bill passed by the Senate. What the Senate has done is all the more remarkable because this is one of the most extensive amendments to the Act. We worked with the Senate Committee on INEC and we produced our own submissions. I am happy to say that virtually all the submissions were taken care of, including some of the developments in the bill that challenged our electoral jurisprudence; Kogi was one.”

The Nation