Former President Goodluck Jonathan has revealed that Nigeria’s electoral process is plagued by countless ghost voters, undermining the accuracy of vote counts.
Jonathan made the remark at the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) Reflection Conference on Democratic Elections in West Africa, held in Abuja on Tuesday.
His words: “There are some areas of concern I also have especially in Nigeria. At the end of elections, you hardly get up to 40 per cent of Nigerians voting. Do you believe that is correct? My belief is that we have too many ghost voters.
“So, whenever the situation is strong, when both parties are strong, and you cannot manipulate the system, then only the real human beings will get the vote. And the real human beings will be left at 50 percent.”
He explained that the automation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Results Viewing Portal (IReV) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will enhance credibility in Nigeria’s electoral process.
The BVAS and IReV are the latest technologies adopted by INEC for the accreditation and electronic transmission of votes for elections.
According to him, the controversy surrounding the 2023 presidential election, which was escalated by dysfunctional IReV could have been avoided if technologies employed were properly automated to minimise human error.
“The issue of controversy about BVAS and IREV for example, if BVAS captures data, that data should be automatically uploaded to the IREV. It should not depend on an interface by a human factor who will now come and tell us about glitches.
“Because if it is so automated that no human factor will stop it, then of course it will be seamless. But if I am to direct the BVAS before the BVAS is supposed to do the work that has been automated, then I can do what I think suits my interest,” he stressed.
The politician acknowledged that the introduction of technology has not eliminated the issues in the nation’s electoral process; however, he noted that the issues can be mitigated by improving the technology, rather than eliminating its use entirely.
