AN ENHANCED WEB-BASED ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM

ABSTRACT

In recent years, information technology has greatly affected all aspects of our national life, and to a large extent, this includes politics. One basic feature of democracy that cuts across all divides of people is the act of election. Traditional manual methods of conducting elections are no longer preferred because of the long period of preparation, violence, rigging, dis-enfranchization of eligible voters, over-voting, mistakes made in counting the votes, long period of counting and high cost of voting process etc. The most recent method being advocated for is electronic voting (e-voting). E-voting is an election system that allows a voter to record his or her secure and secret ballotelectronically.

This work showed how e-voting through the use of mobile devices like tablets, Ipads  and PCswould totally eradicate all these problems as people would no longer go to election venues to cast their votes, rather they would be at the comfort of their homes and offices to exercise their franchise using any of these electronic devices effortlessly.

The application was achieved via means of object oriented software development with the .NET framework. The core web services were implemented with the C# programming language. The design structure was modularized and the design utilized the use of voter identification number and password for voter authentication, as well as token generation for security.

In conclusion, the problems of trust and confidence in the electoral process in Nigeria can be solved if the electoral body embarks on a web-based process. It is recommended that E-voting systems should be certified by an independent agency and audits should be conducted throughout the process to allow independent confirmation of the results produced.

Keywords: Electronic Voting, Permanent Voters Card, Voter Identification Number(VIN), Election, Voter Validation

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Conducting a credible election in Nigeria is increasingly becoming a very difficult task, and this has adversely affected the socio-political and economic well-being of the nation and its citizenry.  Encyclopedia Britannica defined an election as a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.

According to Ginsberg (2007), Election is the procedure that allows members of an organization or  community to choose representatives who will hold positions of authority within it. The most important elections select the leaders of local, state, and national governments. The chance to decide who will govern at these levels, serves as an opportunity for the public to make choices about the policies, programs, and future directions of government action. Election is a critical component of any democratic society. As such, Nigeria returned to democratic rule and engagement with the democratic process led to the conduct of its general elections in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. General elections are elections conducted in the federation at large for federal and state elective positions.

Election is said to be credible when the outcome of such election is acceptable to generality of the people especially if the loser demonstrates the spirit of sportsmanship occasioned by the electoral process transparency. Free, fair and credible elections are central to electoral democracy and provide vital means of empowering citizens to hold their leaders accountable. In a multi-party democracy, it behoves both the elected and appointed government officials at all levels of the political system to render periodic account of their stewardship to the populace. However, accountability of public officials in Nigeria has been undermined by the fact that elections in  the country are perennially fraught with irregularities. The democratization of politics has been unsuccessful in arresting electoral frauds perpetrated by different political parties and megalomaniac politicians. According to Nnoli (2003), “elections are so clearly tied to the growth and development of representative democratic government that they are now generally held to be the single most important indicator of the presence or absence of such government”. They are meaningfully democratic if they are free, fair, participatory, credible, competitive and legitimate.

1.1.1    Elections in Nigeria: 1999-2007

The history of democratic elections in Nigeria especially ones that would be adjudged and accepted by the electorates as free and fair had always been a problem in the country. The 1999, 2003 and 2007 general elections, three elections conducted during this period of ten years of Nigeria’s democracy have been lampooned by many critics as far from free and fair (Ahmed 2015). At inception of the Fourth Republic, the 1999 elections were conducted under military rule. There were fundamental flaws in the elections, but Nigerians wanted to get rid of military rule and have power transferred to civilians. They tolerated and accommodated the outcome, and hoped for future improvements. The 2003 elections, unfortunately, did not represent a substantive improvement over the 1999 elections, in terms of transparency and credibility. Rather, the elections at best represented “business as usual”, in terms of inflation of votes, fraudulent declaration of results, use of armed thugs to scare away or assault voters and cart away election materials and many other irregularities and illegalities, which were committed with impunity (Jega 2015) . The election of April 2007, conducted by the existing electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the leadership of Maurice Iwu has been described as the worst election ever held in this country as a result of indescribable irregularities which marred the elections (Ahmed 2015)

The election itself was characterized by all manner of malpractices many of which reflected both the inefficiency and fraudulent complicity of INEC. A few examples shall suffice, late display of electoral register in violation of the Electoral Act, Omission of names of registered voters from the list, Muddling up of names of registered voters as voter’s names appeared in the wards other than the one they were expected to vote, Lack of transparency in the choice of returning officers (allegedly chosen by the ruling PDP) None or late supply of election materials, Announcement of results figures in contradiction to the number of registered voters or the number that actually voted. Many of the results were in favour of the ruling Party PDP. Refusal to furnish opposition parties or candidates result sheets and other documents that will enable them challenge their defeat in at the electoral tribunal. These malpractices were repeated with extra expertise and boldness in 2007. Partisanship and fraud became an official policy of INEC. INEC officials acted with impunity thus robbing it on the face of the helpless voters that they can do nothing. Results were announced even where no voting took place at all, in many pooling boots result sheets were deliberately not supplied. Hotels and private houses were used for thumb printing to the glare knowledge of security operatives who even aided many of the frauds Obianyo and Emesibe (2015). All the previous elections from 1999 till 2011 were all manually done but that of 2015 embraced some elements of ICT in action.