Stakeholders have advocated for the implementation of e-voting, automated voter cards, and the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in future elections to reduce irregularities and combat voter apathy. 

This appeal was made during a Media and Civil Society Organization roundtable discussion held on Thursday in Benin, focusing on the recent Edo State governorship election, organized by Yiaga Africa. 

Participants emphasized that these measures would not only enhance the credibility of elections but also lower their costs. Solomon Idiogbe, Executive Director of the Youth Empowerment Advocacy and Good Governance Initiative, highlighted that an automated BVAS could facilitate immediate vote counting and uploading. 

He stated, “With automated voter cards, voter apathy could diminish, as individuals would simply walk to their nearest polling unit, where the automated card would function with any BVAS, provided it is registered in Edo. The BVAS should also be designed to accept any card, allowing voters to cast their votes seamlessly. This same BVAS could then count the votes and upload them to the Independent Results Viewing platform (IReV).” 

However, Idiogbe expressed concern that politicians benefiting from rigged elections might resist such changes. 

Additionally, Blessed Jattoh, Political Advisor to UN and ECOWAS Peace Support Operations in Africa, emphasized the importance of utilizing technology to reduce human error in result collation. He remarked, “A crucial step forward for Nigeria is to embrace and leverage technology, as seen globally, to mitigate the excesses present in our electoral system.” 

He further noted, “If we can use the BVAS for accreditation, capturing photographs and thumbprints, there is no reason we cannot also use it to display the logos of various political parties, allowing voters to select their preferred party directly on the screen during the accreditation process, given its ample size.”

The outcome will be shown in real time. As individuals click, the results will automatically compile in the BVAS for public viewing, rather than generating a PDF version of the total results to be stored on the server.

"This entire system minimizes the potential for human interference, and by embracing technology, our elections in Nigeria could become more cost-effective. However, it is unfortunate that those who profit from these irregularities are likely to obstruct its implementation," Jattoh stated.