VOTING FROM BOTTOM-UP

No structure or system can exist without the people. People are part of every structure or system therefore no structure or system can exist without the active participation of the people. Agree or disagree with the above premise. The concept of election in Nigeria denotes a process consisting of accreditation, voting, collation, recording on all INEC forms and declaration of results. However, such simple process is usually marred by election violence, ballot box snatching, stuffing of ballot boxes, vote buying etc. which should not be so. Recently, Kenya conducted an election on the 9th of April 2022 and one begins to wonder what Kenyans got right to enable them conduct a peaceful election especially the Diaspora voting. However, the Kenyan elections did not come without its share of refutations. The declaration of William Ruto as President-elect by Wafula Chebukati, rejection of the declaration by four commissioners of IEBC and rejection of the declaration by Raila Odinga did not come as a surprise. The leaders continue to align and realign allegiances among contestants without any consideration to the dictates of the masses. Common interest has always been the major consideration in post political campaigns with no regard to the electorates in most countries. The bottom-up approach does not look at the caliber of persons contesting because honestly we do not know who the contestants are personally. I personally have not had any contact with any of the presidential candidates and I cannot say that I know them individually but from records it is quite easy to know who to vote for come 2023. KEEP READING

I have a list of some bottom-up criteria that may serve as a guide on who to vote for, they include: a) Past performances b) Families c) Temperament d) Personality e) Character f) Modesty g) Rhetoric h) Humility i) Honesty j) Respectability k) Experience l) Reputation Even who they are married to should be taken into consideration because the office of the first lady has always played a great role on the affairs of the country. I also think it is important that each voter gets a soft copy of each candidates manifesto. The bottom-up approach requires that citizens be given the opportunity to interact with their preferred candidate especially with the advent of social media. Voters should be able to get responses to questions raised from the manifesto. As good citizens, we have a duty to get our permanent voters card and ensure that our names are in the voters register which is in line with s 19(1) of the electoral act 2022. This provides for a copy of voters register which will be displayed or published within 90 days with all the different branches. Going by the data base of eligible voters in Nigeria 96,303,016 people registered before the voter registration was suspended. The voting process should be a very organized and transparent process and minutes voters should be able to cast their votes and results of each voting center made available within minutes. The bottom up process is a process that concentrates or focuses on the smaller parts of the structure bringing them together by way of a bottom up model to form a complete structure. The approach focuses on the people and the families as the foundation that builds up to the top of the structure. The approach looks at the issues affecting the list persons i.e. health, security, food, shelter, education, water. The bottom up approach envisages a process where within hours voters should know which candidate is leading. It should be a transparent process where evidence of the election can be seen by all even though one is not in the counting room and the scores rolled out on the screen electronically as a live update. The results should be announced by the Commission and voters should be jubilating all over the social media and on the streets. William Ruto’s victory did not come as a surprise because of his bottom-up approach to the issues as he noted that the bottom-up economic model will be geared towards bringing down the cost of living, eradicating hunger, creating jobs, expanding the tax base, improving the country’s foreign exchange balance as well as inclusive growth. The achieve this his team settled on six core pillars, namely agriculture, Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) economy; housing and settlement; Healthcare; Digital superhighway and Creative economy; Environment and Climate change. There were four presidential candidates on the 9th of august 2022 the people of Kenya came out and voted, the incumbent Raila Odinga got 48.85% of the votes gathered, Ruto Williams got 7.1m votes representing 50.49% of the votes and achieved the minimum number of 39 counties. Electronic voting has become the bride among the issues in the forth coming 2023 elections. The use of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) technology by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Its existence is rooted in paragraph 13 of the approved Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of 2015 General Elections. However the INEC smart Card Reader is not a voting machine. It only verifies the authenticity of the PVC of a prospective voter. It is used to scan the PVCs in order to verify the identity of a voter in a polling station. Electronic voting on the other hand is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots but the electoral act is silent on this area. What then will be the legal basis of the use of electronic voting or transmission under the electoral act. Put in another way, upon which law will the use of electronic voting or transmission be predicated? One of the issues that arose from the Kenyan election is whose responsibility is it to count and tally? Is it just the returning officer or the commission, as a whole? The issues in Nigeria are whether or not the transmission of result electronically can constitute grounds for questioning an election. How will the electronic transmission be done and will this transmission be authenticated? Looking at sections 50(2), 60 and 62 Any data generated by such process intended to be tendered as evidence in court must fulfill the conditions for admissibility stipulated under section 84 of the evidence Act, 2011. A certificate under section 84(4) is also required to be produced to render such evidence admissible. Like the use of card readers the supremacy of electronic transmission over any other form must be duly established within the current legal framework in Nigeria. The courts will be instrumental in this regard and future amendments of the Electoral Act will be important. However, Section 134 of the electoral act 2022 provides that an election may be questioned on any of the following grounds: 1. A person whose election is questioned was at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the election. 2. The election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of this act; or 3. The respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election. The people now have the responsibility to vote because voting is a right and the fulcrum upon which democracy rests. Voting must be based on things that will benefit the common man like values, inclusiveness, unity, respect for human rights, responsible leadership, unity, peace, better health care, youth empowerment, rule of law, popular participation, respect for the constitution and not on tribal, ethnic or religious sentiments.

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