The Vice-Chancellor of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State, Prof. Ignatius Onimawo, has said that ballot box snatching, manipulation of results and loss of lives associated with manual voting would soon be history in Nigeria.
Onimawo said this following the developing and successful test-running of an App that can be used to conduct elections electronically by the University.
He said the App was developed to curb the manipulations of student union government elections that had taken place in the past.
“The last 2 student union government elections in AAU were conducted electronically. There is a dashboard and as the votes are being cast, it is displayed on the screen and you can see who is leading and how all candidates are fairing.
“So, it is not a question of go and count result as everything is being displayed as the voting takes place and all the candidates’ agents are there with their laptops and are monitoring it. Whoever wins, we already know.
“We have done this two consecutive times now. No issues, very transparent and we have been telling our colleagues from other universities to also adopt this method.
“You may not appreciate this if you don’t know what has happened before. Sometimes in the past, students get killed during SUG elections and some will carry ballot boxes. Students don’t need to go and queue up anywhere to vote. All you need is your smartphone. Once you log into the portal, you cast your vote and it counts. You can’t vote twice from the same phone.
“We developed the App here and that is what we have been using for our student union elections,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor further revealed that the institution had successfully engaged technology to bring sanity to the academic environment, eliminating issues of missing results, money or sex for marks and other ills.
