The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, says there will be no e-voting in 2019.

Prof. Yakubu said this yesterday in Abuja at the end of a three-day International Conference of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) in West and Southern African countries in Abuja, themed ‘Opportunities and Challenges in the Use of Technology: Experiences from West and Southern Africa.’

The INEC chairman who is also the President, ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC), however, said electronics will be deployed in the collation and transmission of elections results.

He said, “The brainstorming was to look at the adoption of technology in all the areas of electoral process and how to provide secure platform for the transmission of election results without hindrance.

“We are to deploy technology within our various legal frameworks within the regions. Election is not just about technology, it is about the confidence of the people in the electoral process.”

He said with the efforts being made to improve the electoral process, elections were going beyond the capacity of electoral commission to manipulate.

Prof. Yakubu, who reiterated his position that the deployment of technology in the conduct of elections had come to stay, added that the essence of the conference was to enable mutually beneficial discussions and strategy and share experience.

The Chairperson, Electoral Commission of Namibia, Notemba Tjipuena, who also doubled as the Chairperson, Electoral Forum, SADC, said Namibia was the first country to deploy technology in electoral process in Africa.

“Every country has to go through their own process, no one shoe fits all approach. Every country will have to study and see where and how to deploy technology in its electoral process,” she said.

The conference, the first of its kind to be held in Nigeria, was organized by INEC and ECONEC, in collaboration with the Electoral Commissions Forum of the SADC and with technical support from the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES).

The conference was funded by the European Union Support for Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) project, managed by ECES.

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