Zinox Boss Advocates Adoption of Electronic Voting in Elections

Chairman of Zinox Group, Leo-Stan Ekeh has applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for insisting on the use of card reader technology in the general elections held across the country in March and April this year. He attributed the success of the election to the card reader machine, which he said, helped in eliminating fraud and multiple voting.

Ekeh therefore called on INEC to adopt more innovative steps such as electronic voting in subsequent elections, as a means of eliminating fraud in the country’s electoral process.

Identifying the laudable role of technology in the 2015 elections, Ekeh noted that the adoption of card readers and the personal integrity of the INEC boss, Prof. Attahiru Jega, went a long way in lending more credibility to the process while helping the nation avert electoral crisis.

Ekeh, who has been in the fore-front of digital technology in Africa, made this declaration at the quarterly seminar of the Nigeria Information and Communications Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) which held in Lagos recently.

Speaking on the theme of the seminar: ‘Engendering Local Innovation in the Telecoms Sector,’ Ekeh said: “Innovation is key and we must embrace technology in every facet of our nation-hood to make this a reality. The just concluded elections went a long way in improving voter confidence in the process and this is down to the adoption of card readers and the personal integrity of Prof. Jega which saved the nation from crisis that could have resulted from an otherwise flawed process.”

“However, we must keep our fingers on the handle of innovation to build more credibility in the system. In future elections, the option of electronic voting could be considered as this will definitely put an end to various forms of rigging. This will help create a situation where over 95 per cent of the electorate will begin to accept the outcome of an election as representing the will of the majority,” Ekeh advocated.

Ekeh, whose Zinox Technologies demystified electoral registration for the 2007 and 2011 polls with the supply of computers and card readers, which aided the building of a voter database for INEC, also urged government to give the youths freedom to succeed through technology.

“Technology helps unleash skill and style to the world and anyone who fails to embrace it runs the risk of being left behind.

We must encourage the younger generation to achieve global success through technology,” he said.

According to him, “With the enabling environment and right policies by government, we can create many more billionaires of the calibre of Aliko Dangote of Dangote Cement and Mike Adenuga of Globacom, from our youths and the multiplier effects on our economy will go a long way in creating wealth and more jobs for a lot more people.”

The industry quarterly seminar has been conceived to create a platform for cross-fertilisation of ideas on topical issues among industry stakeholders both from the public and private sector with a view to proffering solutions to industry issues and design templates for leveraging latest development in the industry for rapid growth.

In corroboration with Ekeh’s advocacy for electronic voting, where registration and voting will be done online-real time, with the support of fully connected computer machines and card reader machines, the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), the umbrella body for all Information Technology (IT) practitioners in the country, has said electronic voting remained the best option to achieve credible elections, going forward.

NCS however insisted that the federal government must put the right technology infrastructure in place in order to achieve it.