By Lilian Okoro
#TrackNigeria: A Political Analyst, Mr Adelaja Adekanmbi, has tasked the Federal Government on provision of new electronic system of voting for the country before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in office.
Adekanmbi, also the Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Lagos Chapter, gave the advice in an interview in Lagos on Friday.
He said that electronic system of voting, being the world’s best practice, had been adopted by many countries.
Adekambi said that the situation in the country had made it necessary for the Federal Government to establish and adopt same.
According to him, the electronic system of voting, if established, will be managed by a different body other than the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“With the electronic system, elections are made easy and are less expensive to conduct with less stress and more transparency, ‘’ he said.
Adekambi said that the country needed not to be unproductive simply because it wanted to conduct elections, saying that there was no need for citizens to travel from one place to another just to cast their votes.
“To conduct election in Nigeria, movements have to be restricted and people will be prevented from going for their business activities, leading to loss of billions of naira and resources.
“The reverse is the case with the electoral system of voting because people can cast votes at anytime, anywhere and at their convenience without necessarily going to the polling unit,’’ he said.
Adekambi said that the system allowed for easy and faster collation with the highest level of accuracy.
He, however, called for a reduction in the number of existing political parties to a maximum of five or six for efficiency in the country’s electoral system.
“It is a complete waste of time, resources and energy registering as much as 93 political parties for election, which invariably, attention will be focused on two political parties at the end.
“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) have been known to be the two major parties in Nigeria.
“Let the two parties, in addition to four other parties be officially recognised as the operating political parties in the country.
“Having too many political parties, to a great extent, contributed to bureaucracies and loopholes that rendered the electoral system in Nigeria inefficient,’’ Adekambi said. (NAN)
