1.1 Background of the Study
The federal republic of Nigeria comprises of 36 states, the federal capital territory (FCT), and 774 local government areas (LGAs). The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east and Niger in the north. The three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria are the Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups.
In Nigeria, General elections are conducted every four years, where a head of state the president and the national assembly representatives are elected. They are elected by the people. The national assembly has about 360 members representing various constituencies.
Election is key to the stability of democracy in any country because it enables the citizens decide who represent and govern them. In Nigeria, representatives of the three arms of government (federal, state and local) are chosen by election. Kuye et al., (2013) stressed that the integrity of the election process is fundamental to the integrity of democracy, therefore the electoral process of a country must be transparent and comprehensible enough to enable voters and candidates accept the results . However, the election circle in Nigeria is characterized with numerous problems. The major problems include: missing names of some registered voters, intimidation and disfranchisement of voters, multiple and underage voting, snatching or destruction of ballot boxes, miscomputation and Falsification of result. In addition, there is lack of probity, accountability, transparency and trust on the part of government. In light of these, Olagbegi (2007) suggests that the introduction of information technology in the electoral process of Nigeria (e-voting) would curb this ugly menace.
Electronic voting (e-voting) is an electronic system which uses electronic ballot that allow voters transmit their secure and secret voted ballot to election officials over the computer. It is one of the pillars of the e-democracy that harnesses computers or computerized voting equipment to ease and tabulate ballots in an election in a trustable manner. There are three types of e-Voting which include: polling station e-Voting, kiosk e-voting and remote e-voting. Polling e-voting enable voters cast their votes electronically on an electronic machine within the polling booth while in Kiosk e-Voting, voters cast their votes at pre-selected stations through ATM-Like terminals. Remote e-Voting allow voters cast their votes anywhere and anytime through the use of mobile devices or personal computers with Internet connectivity. However, research revealed that a comprehensive Electronic Voting System would enhance the standard of elections in the country because it would alleviate the shortcomings of paper-based method. It is also believed that e-voting would save the country from the horrible experiences of the past as it promises free, fair, transparent, convenient and confidential elections as well as the Speedy processing of results.
Most African electoral bodies with no exception to INEC, even with the advancements of technology, still use primitive paper based methods during voting; this system is characterized by manual form filling to chose leaders and transfer of information from manual data capture forms to computerized datasheets, this has led to a high number of mistakes making their way into the final votes count. The main advantage of the paper based system is the ballot papers are easily human auditable. The disadvantages outweigh the advantages for instance printing of ballot papers is slow, expensive, inflexible, environmentally hostile and also literacy limitations and last minute changes to The voter register are difficult to accommodate among others. Over the last few years some election observers have suggested the introduction of electronic voting at state and federal level. The online voting system mainly addresses the voting phase. Electronic voting process using the online voting system should be cheaper than the present paper based system been used by the independent national electoral commission (INEC). Online voting is an electronic way of
Choosing leaders via a web driven application. The advantage of online voting over the present manual system is that the voters have the choice of voting at their own free time and reduced congestion. It also minimizes on errors of vote counting. The individual votes are submitted in a database which can be queried to find out who the aspirants for a given post has the highest number of votes.
With the online voting system, a voter can use his/her voting right online without any difficulty. He/she has to register as a voter first before being authorized to vote. The registration should be done prior to the voting date to enable data update on the database.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The election process begins from voter’s registration. The method adopted during voters registration goes a long way to determine the freeness and fairness of the election. In Nigeria, voting/registration process is very cumbersome. So Many cases, missing data in the voter registration file have been reported. There are also situations where unregistered voters flock to the polling station to participate in the voting process. Even after voting, malicious clerks and officers- in – charge of a polling station end up playing with the result figures.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this project is to develop a database for voter’s registration which will in turn help government to conduct a free and fair election using electronic machines. The objectives are;
1.4 Scope of the Study
The research work is designed to enable National Electoral Commission to use electronic device to capture voter’s information. The design will cover some security issues like authenticating the nationality of the voters through integrating the national ID database to the voter’s registration process and also capturing the picture of the electorates for validation during election.
1.5 Limitations of the Study
During the design of this project work, much finance was required and owing to the financial meltdown globally, the research was limited by finance and hence concentrated on the available materials within the locality.
1.6 Significance of the Study
In view of the rapid development of computer technology in virtually all fields of operation and its use in relation to information management, it has become important to look into the development of electronic voters registration system to enable government to achieve the following:
1.7 Definition of Terms
Ballot: – This refers to the system of voting in a country balloting could be open secret or open secret.
Collation/Returning Officer: He or she collates data from the elections and declares the results were required.
Democracy: – This is government of the people by the people and for the people. This form of government places emphasis on the majority of people.
Election: – This is a set of activities whereby members of a community choose their leaders
Electoral Commission; – This refers to an independent responsibility to conduct all election from the level of government election to the presidential election in the country.
Electoral Officials: – personals who carryout election exercises.
INEC: – Independent National Electoral commission.
Judiciary: – The organ of government responsible for the interpretation of laws and punishment of offenders for the reach of law.
Notice If Election: This is a notice issued not less than 90days before the date appointed for holding of an election which is published in each state of the federation and the federal capital territory.
Political Clerk: – A person who assists the presiding officer and deputizes in an event of the letter’s absences.
Political Party: – Is a group of people who share common principles about the management of their affairs, with the aim of capturing political power in a given polity.
Polling: – A system of voting.
Presiding Officer: – He or she is the actual officer who conducts the election in the polling station where he is in charge.
Publication of the List of Candidates: This is the publication by the electoral commission of the final list of all candidates who stand nominated, to all candidates together with the names of the persons nominating them, including their respective addresses and occupations.
Roll Assistant/Orderly: – There may be one or more poll assistants or orderlies in a polling center. Their duty is to Assist in election duties and ensure orderliness in the station.
Supervisory Presiding Officer: He or she charge of election in a ward usually made up of about 10 polling stations.
Voter: – A voter is a person who has a right to participate in an election as an elector