Tag: 2023 Elections

The crucial role of technology in Nigeria’s Presidential elections

The 2023 presidential election was held on March 18, 2023, and the contenders had wrapped up their campaigns.

Before the election, Nigerians must have a thorough understanding of the electoral voting system in order to participate in the process of seeing election outcomes.

The Independent National Election Commission has gradually detailed the voting system, what to expect, and how voters can determine whether it is free and fair using the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

Read also: Nigerian experts build Collate, a live result-viewing technology to prevent election rigging

IReV protects election votes with technology

According to a statement from INEC on IReV, the electoral referee attempts to use technology to boost the validity of elections and ensure the safety of voters who are participating in the voting process.

Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has made it a priority during the past three elections to employ cutting-edge technological measures to bolster the credibility and security of the voting process.

This has lately gotten worse because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s threat to public safety, which has forced an inevitable shift towards distant exchanges in the political process rather than face-to-face ones.

Along with the Bimodal Verification Accreditation System tool, this will function together. Upon the completion of the accreditation procedure and voting, the BVAS will take a picture of the vote totals and upload it to the IReV site. In 36 states, it will be carried out at every voting location.

Nigeria blocks 1.2 million cyber attacks during Presidential elections

How does the INEC Result Viewing Homepage work?

Creating an account on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to monitor election results

In order to verify the election results, you must first create an account on the INEC result viewing platform. The registration process is not too difficult. All you need is some basic contact information and a functioning email. The email address entered in the form receives an email confirming account activation.

You are immediately logged into the portal after entering the activation code on the website. This election viewing facility is available for elections other than the presidential one. On the first page, there are several election types, from the presidential election to the councillor election.

On the following page, it displays the election results for the upcoming presidential election in the various states and the time the results were last uploaded. You can choose the type of election for which you want to view the results.

To limit your search to a certain state, click it. Two adjacent parts are on the following page. On the left, a refresh button results statistics and the total number of results submitted are all visible.

You may view the state’s LGAs and their respective ward counts in the middle section. The number of polling units from each ward and LGA that have turned in their results can also be kept track of.

You can choose to keep an even closer check on specific locations by selecting the Visit Ward option next to each LGA. After clicking that link, you’ll be taken to a new website where you can monitor the evolving polling place totals.

The results papers are uploaded to the website in PDF format by the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System tool. After all polling places have turned in their online election result sheets, INEC will use the results from all LGAs and states to determine the winner of the presidential election.

March 20, 2023
2023 Elections: NCC reassures Nigerians of cyber-security

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has assured Nigerians of safe and secure cyberspace before, during, and after the 2023 General Elections.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, who made the assurance in a statement, noted that it is the responsibility of the commission to ensure adequate protection of Nigeria’s cyberspace to a level that citizens will have confidence in digital services.

“As part of its mandate, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is expected to ensure adequate protection of Nigeria’s cyberspace.

“This mandate aligns with the goals and objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria (NDEPS).” Pantami said.

Read also: INEC refrains negligent employees from the March elections

How cyberspace will be protected

The minister hinted that on 24th February 2023, he inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure.

The Committee, chaired by the Board Chairman of NCC and with the CEOs of NCC, NITDA (National Information Technology Development Agency) and GBB (Galaxy Backbone) as members, was charged with the responsibilities of Monitoring Telecommunication Infrastructure for the successful conduct of credible, free, fair, and transparent elections.

Others are: Developing and implementing plans to enhance the resilience of critical digital infrastructure against cyber threats; Designing procedures and using technologies to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber attacks, as well as developing the ability to recover from any damage that is done quickly; Developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analyzing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed; and Providing professional advice to the Government on the effective utilization of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.

The minister said that during the presidential election period, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and IPS attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.

According to him, a total of 12,988,978 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria, noting that the Centers successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalating them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.

The communication minister further stated that parastatals under the communication ministry also had before now, created various cybersecurity centres to ensure effective monitoring and security.

“In line with this mandate and in our efforts at supporting the initiatives of securing the Nigerian cyberspace, the parastatals under the supervision of the Ministry have established Cybersecurity Centers, namely, the National Information Technology (NITDA)’s Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team (CERRT), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), and Galaxy Backbone (GBB)’s Security Operations Centre (SOC).

“These Centers were established between 2020 and 2022 in line with the Honourable Minister’s policy directives and had been monitoring Nigerian cyberspace for potential threats and taking appropriate actions to mitigate them, both individually and collectively as well as in collaboration with other stakeholders.” The minister said.

He also noted that in the run-up to the 2023 General Elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace. According to him, threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily, but this skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on Presidential Election Day.

INEC deploys new technologies in the 2023 elections

Commending the parastatals

“The parastatals, under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, have played a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of a credible, free, fair, and transparent election. The Honourable Minister commends all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support that resulted into this this unprecedented success.” The statement read.

“More importantly, the Honourable Minister notes that these attainments are as a result of the commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy. The digital economy sector has enjoyed continued support of the President and it is highly appreciated. He also hopes that lessons learned during the process will be put to effective use in subsequent elections.” The statement ends.

March 18, 2023
INEC refrains negligent employees from the March elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has guaranteed all Nigerians that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will “function optimally” during the March 11 gubernatorial and state assembly elections to be held in 28 states.

In Nigeria’s recent presidential, senate, and national assembly elections, BVAS technology was employed for the first time in a general election. Nonetheless, there were technological issues, and questions have been raised over the validity of the February 25 elections.

The election body was criticized by Nigerians on social media. Similarly, a significant number of election losers and opposition party members have questioned the electoral body’s official results.

Read also: INEC deploys new technologies in the 2023 elections

Yakubu Mahmood, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced in Abuja on Saturday that BVAS “would be deployed once more” for voter accreditation and result management, notwithstanding the difficulties encountered during the general elections.

As witnessed in recent elections, BVAS has sanitized voter accreditation.

Since last week, the Commission has escalated its technical evaluation to fix issues, especially with result uploads.

We’re convinced the system will work optimally.

INEC retrains temporary staff

According to reports from polling places, several election officials struggled to operate the BVAS machine on February 25. In order to prevent process delays or compromises at any point, the INEC chairwoman noted that additional refresher training would be provided for the ad hoc workers.

“Any personnel deemed to have been careless, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including collation and returning officers, shall be excluded from the upcoming elections.”

Assuring that INEC would “work harder to solve the issues experienced” in the previous election, Yakubu Mahmood commended the efforts of all Nigerians.

The Commission would like to express its gratitude to Nigerians once more for their tolerance and understanding. We do not consider this to be standard. We also value the nationalism displayed by political, traditional, religious, and local leaders who urged restraint.

Controversies in Nigerian electoral technology

The Commission also recognizes the importance of the heads of election observation missions, some of whom are still present. We urge such missions to take into account including the governorship and state assembly elections in their observations, not only because they are an essential component of the general election for which they are accredited but also because they are just as significant as the presidential election.

“Similarly, the Commission thanks all domestic observers for their early findings, which will greatly assist us in concluding the 2023 general election.” “The full reports are anticipated.”

March 9, 2023
CSO Launches Intelligence Technology To Ensure Credible 2023 Elections In Nigeria

Connected Development (CODE), a Civil Society Organization (CSO), has released a pre-election security assessment report and electoral intelligence technologies for the monitoring of the 2023 elections.

At the unveiling in Abuja, Mr Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive Officer CODE, stated that the study titled “Same Currency for Violence; Troubling Elections” and the EI electoral monitoring tool were initiatives under its “Uzabe” platform.

According to Lawal, CODE actively participated in election observation in Nigeria’s 2015 and 2019 general elections, deploying over 10,000 observers in both polls, using the Uzabe platform.

He stated that during the 2023 elections, CODE would deploy 20,000 community-based observers to submit real-time situation reports from local polling stations using two of its channels to provide structured and unstructured data, leveraging the Uzabe platform.

Read also: NCC announces toll-free incident hotline for 2023 presidential election

CODE’s Concerns About Nigeria’s 2023 Elections

Lawal explained that the group is focused on Nigeria’s 2023 election processes to ensure free and fair polls. The group also expressed concern about the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign approach to reduce corrupt practices during election and the resultant effect on voter turnout.

“CODE is not interested in the result of the elections but interested in the processes of the elections to ensure that INEC’s guidelines are adequately met in this election.

“The high rate of insecurity as well as the cash crunch due to the Central Bank’s currency redesign policy has escalated the tension causing growing fears, and might impact voter turnout, and as well cause voter apathy among Nigerians.

“We know that corrupt politicians were planning to leverage on this situation to further induce voters, and we are scared that Nigerians may have no option than to sell their votes on election day because of the impact of access to naira.

“One area we are also concerned about is the fact that INEC, looking at the Nigerian Electoral Act 2022 as amended, has the powers to postpone this election on the possibility of breach of peace and security.”

Lawal stated that CODE was also collaborating with Meta to assist combat fake news on social media that might circulate on election day.

He explained that CODE would work with security agencies and other stakeholders to use the platform to gain security insights and enhance security circumstances. He said the CODE will have a situation room on Friday, February 24th, which will include additional CSOs.

Also addressing, Mr. Emmanuel Njoku, Director of Democracy and Governance, CODE, advocated for an increase in voting duration in Nigeria from six to eight hours.

Njoku stated that during the just ended 2022 Elections, Kenya used technology comparable to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

He stated that Kenya’s voting populace of approximately 22 million had 11-12 hours to vote.

“Still, Nigeria with a larger population of registered voters allocated only six hours for voters to carry out their civic responsibility.”

Likewise, CODE hosted a roundtable discussion with media and civil society organizations to encourage collaboration on effective election coverage and reporting in 2023.

The roundtable discussion focused on how CSOs and media professionals could protect the integrity of the electoral process and the upcoming elections.

Directors and representatives from several CSOs attended the event, including the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).

SERAP, Accountability Lab, Radio Now, Citizen FM, Ready to Lead Africa, and other renowned media and civil society organizations were among the others.

CODE and media organizations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate cooperation efforts to combat fake news, misinformation, and disinformation that have the potential to severely impact the 2023 elections.

Nigeria Negotiates with Potential Partners on Best Management System for eNaira

Nigeria’s Upcoming General Election Dates

Nigerians will head to the polls on Saturday 25th February to elect their next president amid pressure of cash scarcity. On Saturday, 11th March 2023, gubernatorial elections will be held across 28 states of the Federation, as well as state Houses of Assembly elections in the 36 states in Nigeria.

Later in the year three other governorship polls will be conducted, while possible rerun elections for regularly planned elections that were cancelled are expected to be held.

February 24, 2023