The 2023 election has come and gone, even though there are a lot of discrepancies that have and will induce litigation. While we thought that the BVAS and IReV are technological improvements in the electoral provision that will reduce the many cases that will be determined by the court of law, sadly because of the partial implementation of the technology, we are likely going to see the most controversial, yet evidence-based petitions in the court.
That said, recall my article on Leadership Newspaper on the 25th of August 2023 titled: “2023 Election: E-Transmission Of Results & Possibility Of Rigging,” I clearly mentioned the fact that real-time transmission is a simple English language phrase with a complex technical procedure that requires extensive technical knowhow to fully implement the procedural component. The failure to transmit results through the already-designed system has brought about a huge distrust between the electoral commission and the electorate. The people no longer trust the commission to fulfill its own rules and we now have a case of half full and half empty.
While waiting on the court to determine the next action, it is important to understand that lessons have been learned and knowledge has been acquired. Our application of the acquired knowledge is now what makes us wise as a country.
Let me start by stating the lapses identified in the Nigeria 2023 electioneering process and in addition, proffer a possible way forward.
Upon collation of results, it was expected that the result sheet will be transmitted to the IReV server for public viewing, however, the BVAS was unable to upload the results reason for this was that there was a technical glitch in the system. The phrase technical glitch is generally ambiguous without specifics which is why many have requested more information as to the type of technical glitch which could have been sabotage, negligence, or direct cyberattacks from a malicious actor. Sadly without more information as regards the glitch we may not know how to ensure that the glitch did not repeat itself again.
Also, we saw a situation where someone’s image was used as a result sheet, to be specific, in my case, a lady’s photo was downloaded from the IReV portal as a result sheet. This looks to be like a deliberate act to circumvent the election process. Notwithstanding, it is important at the point to mention that it is very necessary for us to integrate an artificial intelligence system into the BVAS application for the purpose of detecting, identifying, and approving captured election result sheets before transmitting them to the IReV portal for public view.
There were also claims that results are being changed from the backend by the electoral commission, I had to verify this from the photo of the lady that was uploaded in polling unit 13-01-02-001 on the IReV portal has been replaced. This affirms the fact that INEC can make changes from the backend server. To prevent this from happening, we must begin to look at integrating digital signatures, file fingerprinting, and blockchain technology in the electoral process. The digital signature role will be to authenticate digital documents such as the results sheet, the file fingerprinting technology will ensure that the captured result sheet remains the same anywhere, anytime in a digital format, and the blockchain technology will prevent replacement or modification of the result sheet from the backend.
Moving forward, because of the distrust between INEC and the political parties, especially in the area of technological design and implementation, INEC would have to design a new role for political party technical agents. Their role will be to monitor, query, and checkmate the INEC technological engagement. At this point, I will also suggest a technical brief to the political party’s ICT representative and the electorate (voters) to build trust in the deployment of their technology.
Now that Starlink internet is available to Nigerian, INEC would have to consider partnering with Starlink because it is a low orbit satellite internet access with full Nigeria coverage. Integrating their technology into BVAS eliminates offline result transmission and induces real-time transmission. The election season is almost over, and by the time the governorship election is done, all parties must take some of these recommendations to the next electoral act as an improved operation of the electioneering system in Nigeria.
