FG's agency develops solar- powered electronic voting machine

The National Agency for Science and Engineering
Infrastructure (NASENI) has developed a solar-
powered electronic voting machine which is
capable of eliminating electoral malpractices and
reduce cost of conducting elections in the country.
Presenting the new voting device to the Minister
of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu in
Abuja Monday, the Executive Vice Chairman of
NASENI, Prof Mohammed Sani Haruna also said
the device would enable Nigerians in diaspora to
vote for the candidates of their choice.
Not only that, Prof Haruna said the machine is
also capable making provision for real time
election result as voting progresses across the
country.
"It has provision for Diaspora Voting, it in-
cooperates facial recognition, make provision for
Radio Frequency Identification and device options
of voters identification in addition to thumb print
and card reader", he said.
According to him, the solar-powered Electronic
voting system developed is built on the gains of
the present INEC voting System.
" It is a home grown technology that permits all
Federal, State and local government Election to be
conducted in one day with a voter spending
between fifty to ninety seconds to cast his/her
seven votes for all Executive and legislative
Elections", he said.
In his response, Dr Onu said in addition to
helping Nigeria conduct free and fair
election, the device could also help
Nigeria conduct all its elections same day
as it is being done in many advanced
countries of the world.
The minister said: "For too long, election
has been characterised by malpractices
and people have spending years in court
because elections were not conducted in a
free and fair manner.
"President Muhammadu Buhari has
promised to give this country free and
fair election and we believe that the
ministry will contribute in making it
possible for Nigeria to really have a free
and fair election.
"We want election to be something that
people will just move and cast their vote
and go back and continue with their life.
"We believe that it is important that every
vote must count and every voter matters
and this is will make our democracy very
strong and then we will be in a position
to election the person that will represent
their interest of those who elected them,
because if elections are not free and fair
then those elected through falsification
and malpractices will not really perform
to the satisfactory of electorates."