Thailand Stock Exchange’s index of equities rose 2.3 percent, the most in two years, when the country’s military junta announced in September 2018 a series of reforms that would guide next month’s democratic election.
The reforms would see Thais living abroad register at embassies or consulates to vote through mails or at the embassies or consulates before the election day.
Like Thailand, several emerging markets (EMs) have come up with sweeping reforms to reduce electoral fraud and ensure wider inclusion of all classes of voters, including those in the diaspora.
Their systems hold big lessons for Nigeria, especially the Independent National Electoral Commission now struggling to cope with the enormous task of conducting and managing elections.
Read Also: https://businessday.ng/financial-times/article/what-makes-nigerians-in-diaspora-so-successful/
“Nigeria needs to align electoral reforms with global best practices,” Samuel Oyigbo, an Onitsha-based lawyer and pastor, told BusinessDay.
“We need reforms to encompass online voting to enable Diasporans to participate; advanced technology to reduce huge costs/human contact, including the amount of energy that goes into distribution of electoral materials,” Oyigbo said.
Nigeria’s Electoral Act of 2010, including the amended version recently rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari, falls short in these vital areas. The amended version, though, recognises the use of card readers, which have since 2015 been used to verify voter cards. But card readers have their shortcomings as they malfunction in many instances. They also belie the real reforms needed by Nigerians, Timothy Jacobs, a political analyst, said.
INEC postponed the February 16 presidential election to February 23 on the basis of poor logistics and planning.
Bismark Rewane, chief executive of Financial Derivatives Limited, a risk and financial advisory firm, estimates the country bore $10 billion cost in postponement, consequential expenditure, opportunity cost and reputation cost.
In other emerging economies, reforms are reducing election costs and unbundling electoral bodies to enable them perform efficiently.
Since 1952, the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) has undertaken a series of electoral reforms that have culminated in digitisation of elections in a country populated by over 1.3 billion people.
With the process digitised, India spent only 4,000 Core Rupees ($640,000) to conduct the 2014 general elections in which 814.5 million voters were eligible.
On the other hand, Nigeria spent N120 billion ($603.015 million at N199/$) to conduct the 2015 general elections for 69 million voters, which is 942 times the cost of India’s. The body is conducting this year’s election, beginning from tomorrow, with N234.507 billion ($651.408 million), because its activities involve a lot of logistics not found in India, Estonia, Rwanda and Thailand.
India’s electoral commission introduced Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in 1982 to reduce malpractices and human contact while improving efficiency.
To eliminate electoral fraud, Electors Photo Identity Card was introduced and it became compulsory for the electorate in the 2004 elections.
The electoral body subsequently computerised the electoral rolls in 1998 and introduced Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in eight constituencies in 2014.
Apart from what is generally known as ‘None of the above’ (NOTA) option for voters, India has emerged as the first country to have photo electoral rolls.
Through electoral reforms, Rwandans living abroad voted in the 2017 presidential election. Forty-four thousand Rwandans in the diaspora voted at nearly 100 polling stations, according to the East African electoral body.
Similarly, Brazil, with almost the same demographic size as Nigeria (209 million people), has adopted electronic ballot boxes in all of its elections and no voter-verified paper trail can be used again.
“Be sure that the electoral justice, with the view of accomplishing the mission of carrying out elections with absolute transparency, is adopting all the necessary procedures to investigate and hold those who attack democracy to account,” Rosa Weber, minister at Brazil’s Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), said in October 2018.
On February 23, 2017, Gilmar Mendes, president of the Superior Electoral Court, and Marcos Galvão, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), signed an agreement that allowed the use of the Título Net abroad. This allows over 460,000 Brazilian voters living abroad to vote, a privilege which Nigerians in Diaspora do not enjoy.
Estonia, a country in Northern Europe, is currently conducting its Riigikogu (parliamentary elections) on the internet.
To prevent vote-buying, voters are permitted to vote as many times as they like during the assigned voting period, but only the most recent vote counts.
Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee for INEC, said in December 2018 that a reform involving diaspora voting would require constitution amendment.
“The Commission wishes to state unequivocally that there will be no Diaspora or Out-of-Country voting for any Nigerian, in accordance with extant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended),” Okoye said.
However, Oyigbo, who was quoted earlier, said that unbundling INEC has become necessary.
“All you need is to amend the Electoral Act. It will be impossible to have polling booths across the world, but you can have elections at embassies or even online for them,” he said.
ODINAKA ANUDU & GBEMI FAMINU
