1.1 Background of the Study
Election process at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) is based on traditional paper ballots. Polling booth will be made available for each faculty in the school where students of each department of that faculty can cast their votes. Members of inaugurated electoral committee will be present at each polling booth to supervise and coordinate the voting process. The materials present at each polling booth are empty ballot boxes where voter will cast their vote, a ballot paper which contains all the candidates name, pictures and empty box drawn besides each person where voter will tick to indicate their choice and a marker to change voters’ status by marking the thumb of their finger. At the electoral committee office result at each polling booth is confirmed and the total counting will be held and then the winner of the election will be determined. The electoral committee will then officially report the result of election to the school management and also to the public (students and staff). However, this method of conducting elections has led to a number of issues and this calls for ICT driven method of conducting elections.
The increase in the use of smart phones in both public and private institutions can be adopted to address the problems imposed by the existing models of conducting election at UNIZIK. The manual processes and procedures of voting system in our contemporary days has been confronted with consistent problems of compromise, errors and wastage of time which are traceable to human mistakes and shortcomings. The establishment of a sustainable, manageable, reliable and flexible secured voting application for Student Union Government in Nnamdi Azikiwe University to curb these problems inherent in the existing system is the bases of this project work. Such a secured voting application will support all electoral processes and procedures. Secured voting application for smart phones was introduced so that unauthorized access or abuse of important information will be eliminated.
Student Union Government election has been a known tradition across various tertiary institution in Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe University, since its establishment in 1992, UNIZIK has been known practicing the age long election traditions in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. What motivated the researcher to embark on the project is because of much problems seen in the existing model adopted in the previous SUG election conducted at UNIZIK. This problems includes; there is much rigging tendency during electoral process, difficulty in regulating multiple votes cast by a single voter, much time spent in registering voters, and conducting electoral processes, Illegible voters casts their vote, Loss of votes due to either wrong voting or the case of any accident occurring during transportation of the statement of result and other electoral materials to the collection centers.
Long ago, the voting system of (UNIZIK) is based on traditional paper ballots. Polling booth will be made available for each faculty in the school where student of each department of that faculty can cast their vote. Members of inaugurated electoral committee will be present at each polling booth to supervise and coordinate the voting process.
The materials present at each polling booth, are empty ballot boxes where voter will cast their vote, a ballot paper which contains all the candidates name, pictures and empty box drawn besides each of them where voter will tick to indicate their choice and a marker to change voter’s status by marking the thumb of their finger. The voting process is in this wise, all voters are to visit the polling booth of the faculty where their department belongs to.
The inaugurated electoral committees present at the polling booth are to coordinate voters. Firstly, they have to check the eligibility of voter by prompting him/her to provide his/her school identity card. Secondly, they have to check the thumb of the voter’s finger if there is ink there to know the voting status of the voter so to know if he/she can proceed. If the voter failed to pass all these checks he/she will not be allowed to go further else he/she can advance to go and pick a ballot paper which contains all the candidates’ names, pictures and empty square box where he/she will tick (the voter will tick only inside the empty box beside the choice of his/her candidate name/picture) any ticking linking two empty boxes or unclear ticking will be counted as invalid vote.
At the end of the voting process, the ballot papers for each candidate is counted by electoral committee member immediately at each polling booth (each faculty) and the winner at each polling booth will be announced immediately after the counts. Then the ballot boxes at each polling booth will be transported to electoral committee office. At the electoral committee office result at each polling booth is confirmed and the total counting will be held and then the winner of the election will be determined.
The electoral committee will then officially report the result of election to the school management and also to the public (students and staffs). Due to the development in technology in the last Lagos University Student Union Election the use of ballot paper and ballot boxes has been eliminated and substituted with a few computer laptops system with internet connection at each polling booth with an installed voting application via internet.
Technology has always influenced and shaped the ways election are held (held, 2006). The rapid advancement in information and communications technologies has given rise to new applications that were impossible just few years ago. Mobile voting is defined as a voting method where the voter’s intention is expressed or collected by mobile electronic means. It is a form e-voting. The features of mobile phones are the set of capabilities, services and applications that they offer to their users, of which is Short Message Service (SMS).
The inefficiency of voting process in Student Union Government (SUG) elections has resulted in a lot of problems. These problems have continued to obstruct the peace and tranquility of elections as the choice of a capable candidate is not encouraged by the existing system.
These problems include:
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to design and implement a secured voting system via use of smart phone application for Student Union Government, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state.
The objectives are;
1.4 Significance of the Study
A voting system contains rules for valid voting, and how votes are counted and aggregated to yield a final result. Common voting systems are majority rule, proportional representation or plurality voting with a number of variations and methods such as first-past-the-post or preferential voting. In election systems, protecting the integrity and privacy of critical data (e.g., votes, configurations, and ballot definitions) is undeniably important.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The scope of the project is that it will use the UserID and password created by user during registration in the voting system, through this all the details of voter are saved in database. And it will act as the main security to the voting system. The study also covers voting processes as it is done at the SUG elections in various tertiary institutions. It also inculcates the voters’ personal records, candidates’ personal records and voting procedures.
1.6 Limitations of Study
Some of the constraints that may have in one-way or another affected the outcome of this work include:
1.7 Definition of Terms
Ballot Box: A container in which voters drop their votes.
Ballot Paper: Material with which voters used to cast their votes.
Ballot: A vote recorded in an election.
Collection Centre: A designated location where results are collected.
Computer: Computer is an electronic device operating the control of instructions stored in its memory that can accept data (input) manipulate the data according to a specified rules (processing) produces result output and stores the result for future use.
Data processing: This is defined as the entire process of converting or manipulating data into definite meaningful information (Adigwe, & Okoye, 2015).
Data: It is the facts collected for decision making they are facts that are kept to be processed to get more information.
Database Management System (DBMS): This it is software which controls the flow of data and checks and checks on how data are stored.
Database: This is an organized /unique collection of related files. It is a collection of schemas, tables, queries, reports, views and other object.
Design: This is the art or process of designing how something will look, work.
Election: The act of choosing by voting one of the candidates for a position.
Electronic Data Processing Equipment (EDP): It is a machine that performs the work of data manipulation.
E-Voting: Also known as electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes.
Home Page: The front door to a website. Normally contains links to other sites or pages.
HTML: Hyper Text Mark-up Language.
Information: It is a processed data that can be read and understand.
Poll Station: A center or venue where voters cast their votes.
Poll: The process of voting at an election.
Registration: This is the process of supplying peculiar information of a student to the school in order to be given a registration number as a bonafide student.
Rigging: This is to manipulate election result in favor of another person.
Security: This helps to prevent unauthorized users from illegally accessing certain data within the database, it protects your data/ files.
Smart Phone Application: It is a software programme designed to run in smart phones and other mobile devices.
SUG election: Student Union Government elections.
System: Is the collection of hardware and software, data information procedure and people.
Voter’s Card: This is a card given to a voter to ascertain that he has the right to voter.
Votes Register: This is a register containing the data of eligible voters completed by the election officials.
Voting System: Is a method by which voters make a choice between options, often in an election or on a policy referendum.
Web Site: It is a location on the web that publishes some kinds of information.