The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it will not be introducing electronic voting for the 2019 general elections.

In his address yesterday at a press conference to mark the end of the three-day international conference on the use of technology for the conduct of elections in Africa, the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said it would only deploy technology for purposes of collating and transmitting election results during 2019 poll.

“Let me say categorically that the commission will not be deploying technology for electronic voting in the 2019 elections, but we will deploy the technology for collation and transmission of election result from polling units to INEC result collation base,” he said.

The INEC chairman who is also the President, ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC), however, also said:

“The brainstorming was to look at the adoption of technology in all the areas of electoral process and how to provide secure platform for the transmission of election results without hindrance.

“We are to deploy technology within our various legal frameworks within the regions. Election is not just about technology, it is about the confidence of the people in the electoral process.”

He said with the efforts being made to improve the electoral process, elections were going beyond the capacity of electoral commission to manipulate.

Prof. Yakubu, who reiterated his position that the deployment of technology in the conduct of elections had come to stay, added that the essence of the conference was to enable mutually beneficial discussions and strategy and share experience.

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