RSU’s SUG Calls For Electronic Voting In 2019

Following the success of electronic voting in the last Students Union Government (SUG) elections at the Rivers State University, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to adopt the new voting system in next year’s general elections.
Secretary to the RSU Student Union Government, Comrade Clement Chunwe – Nwafor, told The Tide that e-voting system was cheap and will reduce electoral malpractices.
“If the e-voting system can succeed with a students population of 32,000, I believe it can be adopted to the larger society”, he said.
The RSU SUG scribe explained that all that was needed was to have a special permanent identification Number (PIN) attached to the plastic voters card through which citizens can use and login either to a special portal provided by INEC or through their phones.
Asked whether PIN cannot be forged or manipulated, Chunwa-Nwafor submitted that “every voters card has a different PIN number which is in INEC’s data base, so if a fake pin is produced, you can’t login and vote”.
The students union leader said that the latest budget approved by the Senate for INEC totalling over N200 billion was enough to use an electronic voting system, instead of using the card reader which often failed and most times required constant power recharge.
“An electronic voting will reduce interference and rigging and more citizens will be able to vote as far as one has a voting card and a GSM phone”, he emphasised.
Commending the authorities of the Rivers State University for conducting the e-voting in the SUG elections, Chunwa-Nwafor observed that the school’s management has set a pace for other schools to fellow.
“We are very happy because the school’s management did not interfere with the process. They allowed the will of the students to prevail and that is unprecedented”, he submitted.