Electronic Voting and Credible Election in Nigeria: A Study of Owerri Senatorial Zone

Abstract

The study is basically to examine electronic-voting in Nigeria elections as an improvement on the traditional paper voting with a focus on Owerri Senatorial Zone, Imo State. Worried by the frequent and debilitating incidences of electoral fraud and disenfranchisement of voters for unsubstantiated reasons, the study tended to sample opinion of respondents in Owerri on the subject as a way of strengthening democracy. Martin Hagen theory of e-democracy was adopted as theoretical framework. Hagen construes e-democracy as a strategic tool to strengthen democratic practices using the information and computer technology (ICT). The study is a survey attempt which made use of structured questionnaire to elicit information from respondents. Simple per centage was used for data analysis. It is our finding among others that e-voting will reduce incidences of election fraud especially in the areas of voting and counting of votes, and also the physically challenged qualified voters and citizens living and working abroad will have opportunity to cast their votes. The study concludes that Nigeria must cash in on flourishing (ICT) to fight endemic electoral irregularities in Nigeria through firm belief in and avowed adoption of e-voting. The study recommended among others institutionalization of legal frameworks and structures that will formidably support the practice of e-voting in Owerri senatorial zone in particular and Nigeria in general.