NASENI Develops Solar-Powered Electronic Voting Machine
The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has developed a solar-powered electronic voting machine which is capable of eliminating electoral malpractices and reduce cost of conducting elections in the country.
Presenting the new voting device to the Minister of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu in Abuja Monday, the Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI, Prof Mohammed Sani Haruna also said the device would enable Nigerians in diaspora to vote for the candidates of their choice.
Daily Trust report not only that, Prof Haruna said the machine is also capable making provision for real time election result as voting progresses across the country.
“It has provision for Diaspora Voting, it in-cooperates facial recognition, make provision for Radio Frequency Identification and device options of voters identification in addition to thumb print and card reader”, he said.
According to him, the solar-powered Electronic voting system developed is built on the gains of the present INEC voting System.
” It is a home grown technology that permits all Federal, State and local government Election to be conducted in one day with a voter spending between fifty to ninety seconds to cast his/her seven votes for all Executive and legislative Elections”, he said.
In his response, Dr Onu said in addition to helping Nigeria conduct free and fair election, the device could also help Nigeria conduct all its elections same day as it is being done in many advanced countries of the world.
The minister said: “For too long, election has been characterised by malpractices and people have spending years in court because elections were not conducted in a free and fair manner.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to give this country free and fair election and we believe that the ministry will contribute in making it possible for Nigeria to really have a free and fair election.
“We want election to be something that people will just move and cast their vote and go back and continue with their life.
“We believe that it is important that every vote must count and every voter matters and this is will make our democracy very strong and then we will be in a position to election the person that will represent their interest of those who elected them, because if elections are not free and fair then those elected through falsification and malpractices will not really perform to the satisfactory of electorates.” (DAILY TRUST)
