ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES AND CARD READER SYSTEM IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN TARABA STATE)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Background to the Study
The smart card reader was the most contentious issue in the 2015 general elections. The smart card reader was a critical component in these elections and it was being used for the first time in Nigeria’s electoral process. The card reader remains one of the greatest innovative technologies from the 2015 general elections. Past elections in Nigeria had witnessed the desperate bid for political power by some stakeholders with vested interests in Nigeria’s electoral process. Certain stakeholders engaged in all forms of electoral malpractices including multiple voting, impersonation, manipulation and falsification of results which led to legal action, electoral conflict and violence. Electoral malpractices make citizens lose confidence in the electoral process; and lack of confidence by citizenry in the democratic process is an impediment to deepening electoral democracy.
According to López-Pintor (2010, p. 9), electoral fraud has even more serious political implications in that it allows a party or candidate to take over public positions contrary to the popular will. The governments of Cote d’Ivoire, Peru and Serbia all collapsed in 2000 as a result of popular rebellions against fraudulent elections. Similarly, the so-called ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine in 2004 led to presidential elections being completely reheld after extensive fraud was demonstrated (López-Pintor 2010, p. 5).
The use of card readers at the 2015 general elections in Nigeria has infused some level of transparency and credibility into Nigeria electoral process (Okoro, 2015). It was observed that when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) first announced its plan to introduce card reader for the March 28 and April 11 2015 general elections, many Nigerians as well as politicians strongly opposed the idea. They felt that the card reader machine could have been test -run prior to the general elections to ensure hitch free elections. Besides, they felt that the country has not developed to a level where such technology could be employed for elections without prior test. Undoubtedly, the public outcry that greeted the planned use of card reader was enough to discourage Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from using it in the general elections. But because INEC has confidence in the efficacy of modern technology in achieving quick results, in addendum to its vision to transform the country’s electoral process from its archaic norms characterized by ballot box snatching and multiplicity of ballot tomb-printing, INEC went ahead and used the technology against all hitches (Vanguard, 2015).
