And there you have it. We will wait for one more week to see improvements in the current exercise, and in particular to be told how many Nigerians have been registered after one week.
MID-WEEK ESSAY: Why INEC Does Not Need All These Direct Data Capture Machines (DDCMs) - By Bolaji Aluko
Author: - Bolaji Aluko Published: Wed, 13th Oct 2010 - Source: Sahara Reporters
INTRODUCTION: According to INEC's Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, his electoral commission needs about 120,000 DDCMs – one per polling unit doubling as registration centers - in order to be able to register anew an estimated total of 70 million voters in preparation for the expected-to-be-watershed 2011 elections.
National consensus was that the old INEC voters' register (developed under former INEC Chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu) used in the discredited 2007 elections was completely without integrity and hence had to be discarded. Each DDCM consists of a laptop, a web-camera, a scanner and a printer (not to mention printer and scanner cartridges and paper (both special and ordinary)) Each is valued to be no more than $2,000. Each registration center is expected to be manned by three INEC personnel.
There are however currently four "minor" logistical problems currently bedeviling this enterprise – and money, at a whopping N78 billion, already granted and transferred to INEC coffers, thanks to a charging Jega, the speedy action of the National Assembly, with support by the Presidency , is not one of them. As of today October 13, 2010:
1. The 120,000 registration centers have not been identified;
2. The 360,000 personnel have been recruited;
3. The 120,000 DDCMs have not been ordered. [Actually 132,000 are to be ordered.]
4. An extension of time by electoral law which INEC seeks from the National Legislature has not been granted.
The acuteness of the problem was felt more when originally all indications were that the elections were to be held in January 2011 as stipulated by the amended 1999 Constitution and new Electoral law 2010. An election timetable drawn up by INEC itself with the January 2011 date in mind – with a two-week registration schedule that was to commence November 1 and end November 14 (see Appendix I) - has since been declared unworkable by INEC itself, whereupon it has demanded extension of time so that it can conduct the elections in April 2011 as originally intended. The national sentiment – citizens, political parties, the National Assembly and the Presidency alike – is in consensus over granting INEC more time, and it is only a matter of time now that the necessary amendment to the new Electoral Law 2011 will be enacted.
According to latest information:
QUOTE
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has proposed that the next presidential election should be held by April 9, 2011 while the much-awaited voters registration exercise should hold in January 2011.This was contained in a letter signed by INEC's chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, to the Senate dated September 29, 2010, on the proposed schedule for 2011 elections as the lawmakers are warming up to consider amendments to the 2010 Electoral Act to create more time for adequate preparations for the elections.
In his letter, Professor Attahiru Jega said, "The extension of time sought will enable the Commission to have more time to train ad-hoc staff for the registration exercise and for the conduct of the 2011 elections. The commission will also gain more time to engage in intensive voter education campaign."
The INEC boss added that if the extension is approved, "The Commission will have enough time to plan the logistics of deploying staff and materials to all the registration centres and polling units across the country. There will be more time for political parties to conduct their affairs, particularly primaries in the light of far-reaching changes in the new Electoral Act."
The proposal by INEC indicated that a 15-day registration of voters would begin on January 8, and display the register 'for claims and objections' between January 27 and February 2, 2011.
The fresh timetable, which INEC calls its 'preferred option' also shows that conduct of party primaries should begin at any moment approved but should be concluded by December 31, 2010.
Collection of Form CF002 (Personal particulars of candidates), and Form CF002 (List of party candidates) is fixed for December 15 to 22, 2010.
If the Senate accepts the timetable, the National Assembly election would now hold on April 2, 2011; to be followed by presidential election on April 9, and then governorship and state assembly elections on April 16.
INEC says runoffs for governorship and presidential elections, if any, would be held within seven days after the announcement of the result of the respective elections.
INEC has often justified its request for more time by the need to compile a credible register of voters and prepare well for the elections. The Commission said it lost valuable time between when it was inaugurated and when President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Electoral Act 2010 into law.
UNQUOTE
But will the three month extension to April 2011 – even if all the above logistical problems are cleared – mean that 70 million voters (or even 40 million, to be more conservative) will be registered within another stipulated two-week period that starts in January 2011? My answer is "mathematically and practically impossible." 70 million registered voters implies roughly on average 6,000 per registration center. For a ten-day two-week period, that requires on average 600 voters registered per day per polling station. For an eight-hour-per-day period with one machine per registration center, that means that each registration would require a less than 1 minute – to ask, verify and enter (by hand or by typing into a computer) name and other personal information, finger print, take a web-cam picture, print a card and hand same to the registrant, in addition to bantering a little.
That would be a tall order, not only because of the time constraints noted above, but the very difficult task of motivating 70 million people anywhere in the world to VOLUNTARILY go out and do ANYTHING within a two-week period, even in a developed country, not to talk of a developing country like Nigeria where there is existing apathy or skepticism, if not cynicism, about the electoral process itself. Maybe throwing in some holidays and other carrots, and applying some stick to increase registration might help - but one wonders by how much.
HOW TO REGISTER MAXIMUM NUMBER OF VOTERS
Clearly, what we need to ensure the MAXIMUM number of registrants are three considerations:
1. Longer registration period - like three months, which should start RIGHT AWAY, like TOMORROW.
2. Less face time by a registrant at a registration center (for example, like doing away with finger-printing);
3. Less dependence completely on these yet-to-be-ordered DDCMs, if at all.
Increasing the period for registration to three months (12 weeks) instead of 2 weeks now means on average 100 voters registered per day per polling unit, and certainly far more time for each for a thorough job to be done, but at 5 minutes average still a tall order using one machine per registration center. In addition, we should do away with finger-printing: I do not believe that finger-prints belong in a voter's card since on Election Day, finger-print identification machines will not be used anyway to identify and permit voters to cast their ballots. After all, post-election forensic analysis of fingerprints is NOT to identify voters, but rather to identify MULTIPLE identical fingerprints in votes cast – so what would voter finger prints in voter cards be useful for in that case?
PHOTO-IDENTIFICATION – WHY MUST IT BE ISSUED BY THESE DDCMS?
Perhaps the most crucial point of this essay is the following suggestion: to register just the names and some other pertinent personal textual information of the registrants, but do away almost completely with the web-cam and card-printing aspects of these DDCMs, replacing them with use of existing photo-IDs and printing of bar-codes which are then affixed (either by cello-tape or pressure-adhesion) to those existing photo-IDs. Why must we take pictures anew and issue a photo-ID ALL OVER AGAIN just for voting, when we can PRINT bar-codes (of the one- or two-dimensional variety), and use them (by affixation) to VALIDATE existing photo-IDs such as:
1. Voter IDs used in 2007 elections
2. National ID cards (see information in the Appendix)
3. Drivers Licenses
4. Travel Passports
5. Employee Cards
6. School ID cards
7. Hospital Admission Card
8. Other Government-approved ID cards
After all, I do not see why my perfectly suitable 2007 voter card (which I obtained with some difficulty in November 2006) cannot be re-validated for 2011; I know of many people (including my parents) who have perfectly suitable National ID cards; my driver in Nigeria has a valid driver's license which I insist on him carrying with him when chauffeuring me around; Nigerians throng airports with valid green travel passports to all parts of the globe; public (government, including armed forces and law enforcement personnel) and private (including hospitals and banks) organizations have ways of photo-ID-ing their employees and patrons to enable them get into and out of their premises; and all institutions of higher learning (where in general students are 18 years and above and are hence of voting age) have ID cards.
For those who do not have ANY of the above photo-IDs, they can be requested to BRING to the registration center two passport pictures, one of which can be affixed to their bar-coded application form (see Appendix 3 below for a suggested form), and a scanned copy (to be followed possibly by lamination) can be returned to the registrant as an instant government-approved ID card for him or her.
Consequently, provided that these stated documents above have clear names, clear passport-size pictures and unique identification number on them, they should serve as photo-ID on Election Day, while the affixed bar-code will serve as proof of their INEC's (re-)validation for 2011. Why do we have to spend money all over again for these photo-IDs? Why spend such valuable foreign-exchange money on so many DDCMs? Why not spend the money instead on less expensive, more battery-friendly hand-held bar-code readers on Election Day – not to talk of digital cameras and audio recorders also on Election Day?
Note that I am not asking that the actual databases for the Voter IDs or National IDs, etc. be adopted by INEC 2011 - who knows, they may be as worthless as INEC's 2007 database. Rather we could put to good use their photo-IDs as done elsewhere in the world. For example, in my state of Maryland, USA, a reminder note was sent to me recently by the Democratic Party which
QUOTE
What to bring when you go to vote
When you go to vote, there are a few things you should bring.
When you go to vote, there are a few things that you should make sure to bring with you. While many states do not require you to show ID when you vote, it's always a good idea to bring some type of identification and proof of residency, such as a utility bill addressed to you.
If you are a first-time voter, you should be prepared to show ONE of the following forms of ID: a current and valid photo ID, such as a driver's license; or a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.
First-time voters in Maryland who registered by mail must bring ONE of the following: * A valid photo ID, or * Current utility bill, or * Bank statement, or * Paycheck, or * Government check, or * Other government document that shows your name and address
UNQUOTE
If DDCMs must be used at all, then they will be needed ONLY for those registrants who do not have ANY of the above photo-IDs – and that population should indeed be in the vast minority. More importantly, we should not make the electoral process so vulnerable to one machine for political mischief-makers to easily derail.
A NOTE ON THE REGISTRATION CENTERS VIS-À-VIS POLLING UNITS
I still do not understand why we need to identify the registration centers with the polling units. With about 9,000 wards country-wide, we do not need more than 30,000 registration centers (roughly on average 3 per ward), whereupon voters can be ASSIGNED to the 120,000 polling units later on, sent either by SMS or by email, made available on the Internet, or selectively published at various INEC centers.
In any case, one hopes that in future, all of these polling units will:
1. Have street addresses, and not nebulous identifications like "Tree in front of Oba's Palace", etc.
2. Make as much use as possible of public facilities like primary, secondary and tertiary class-rooms, as well as town halls, with INEC money being used judiciously for collateral social amenities upgrade.
A NOTE ON ELECTION DAY
While at it, INEC should be spending more time now building greater confidence in its operations by letting the world know what it has in store for Nigerians ON ELECTION DAY. How we are going to vote on that day, and how we will be assured that our votes will count, we still don't know. One hopes, as Jega himself has once hinted, that the Modified Open-Secret Ballot System will be used as on June 12, 1993, where
- all voters get accredited from (say) from 8- 11 am nationwide;
- all voting is done in secret (say) from 11 am - 4 pm nationwide;
- all counting is done in public at polling stations and announced and recorded there from 4 pm - 7pm, pasted there for the world to see then and later, and also sent in real time to central AND local centers.
- all voting monitoring by INEC officials, security, political parties' agents and non-governmental agencies is done un-impeded.
Then and only then shall we have a shot at free, fair and credible elections. However, the confidence building should start right away, and should not depend on the nebulous ordering of DDCMs.
And there you have it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
"How I got my INEC Voter Registration Card in Nigeria" [Bolaji Aluko, November 2006]
Uche & Co.:
This is a killer-news on the People's excitement for voting registration exercise. I want to believe that these machines went through both white and black box level of regressive testing, followed by customer acceptance testing before they were deployed for productive operation. A proper analysis of the problem should be done to identify the causative agents and effect problem isolation to focus on expeditious knowledgeable and authoritative solution.
If it is spurious memory issue or, an erratic bug within the collaborating devices (the laptop and the fingerprint collection/capturing device), patch development and through testing and mass deployment should be commenced immediately.
Our challenges within this period of attempting an automated voting registration should have been only on how to motivate, encourage and enlighten our citizens to adapt to the new ways of achieving synergistic objectives of fair, free and equitable ballot-based determination of leadership selection as the right and responsibility of every citizen but not a demoralizing reality from end chain of PPT (People, Process and Technology) factor.
In fact, a baseline and mitigation security testing could eventually validate the fact that there might not be any security consideration in developing and implementing those machines that are actually part of critical national infrastructure.
It is very sad that often time, hurriedly cooked up technologies end up in Nigerian major operations. Because ineptitude, lack of patriotism, and personal interest are allowed to form the lifeblood of greed that kicks in and shorts down the brain.
I hope that INEC will learn a greatly from this clog in the wheel of productivity.
Emma Chigbu
Contact Global Satellite Service, LLC for all your free Satellite service deployment –
(240)-264-0054
From: NigerianID@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NigerianID@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Uche Onwudiwe
Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2011 12:45 PM
To: alukome@gmail.com
Cc: Nigerian Identity
Subject: Re: NigerianID | Responses # 2 to STAR INQUIRY: About INEC's Ongoing Registration Exercise
The current issue from my analysis at two of the sites is between the fingerprint capture device and the laptop. It is either a memory/buffer overrun or the drivers installed onto the laptop.
The temporary solution that I suggested which sped up the process a bit was to unplug the capture device after each registrant and also a restart of the device from the laptop after each hand.
One of the folks got in contact with an INEC official who said that a patch is supposed to be in the works but that needs to be confirmed.
As mentioned below, if these machines aren't patched immediately there is no way that everyone will be registered on time.
Uche Onwudiwe * COURE Technologies, Inc. * President/CEO
678-367-3434x101 ph * 678-367-3499 fax * 703-919-8233 Cell (US)
+234-1-462-2568 ph * +234-703-270-3713 NG Cell (Nigeria)
uonwudiwe@coure-tech.com * http://www.coure-tech.com
"Your Total Technology Solutions Provider"
Confidential - This email and any files transmitted with it are the property of COURE Technologies, Inc, are confidential, and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom this email is addressed. If you are not one of the named recipients or if you otherwise have reason to believe that you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and immediately delete this message from your computer. Any other use, retention, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of this email is strictly prohibited.
From: NigerianID@yahoogroups.com <NigerianID@yahoogroups.com>
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; OmoOdua <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>; ekiti ekitigroups <ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com>; naijaelections@yahoogroups.com <naijaelections@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun Jan 16 09:22:53 2011
Subject: NigerianID | Responses # 2 to STAR INQUIRY: About INEC's Ongoing Registration Exercise
Dear All:
Keep them coming folks......and provide us ROUGHLY your geographical coordinates.....
You can also leave a reply on:
__________________-
Sunday January 16, 2011
Registration Update:
I got to the registration centre close to my residence at college road in Ifako Ijaiye local govt area, Lagos exactly 10.30am and I just return back home by 3.45pm highly frustrated as only two persons have been able to successfully register today. Even the scanning machine has now stop working and all efforts by the poor corper to reach his supervisor proved abortive. If we go at this speed, there is no way INEC would be able to register all eligible voters within the specified 2weeks duration. Reports from other centres unfortunately is the same and it's like the enthusiasm and hope of people towards the forthcoming election is already shaking.
If no public holiday is announced, workers would have only weekends to register and i need to be enlighten on how majority of Nigerians would not be deprived of the opportunity to perform their civic responsibility. I think INEC chairman should urgently take steps now to address the present epileptic registration before the whole exercise gets out of hand.
S. K.
_________________
Saturday January 15, 2011
Sir,
Reports coming in are indeed sad,Thousands were in the sun for hours as Corpers trainees could not operate DDcMachine.
Many went back home frustrated,i hope they will register.I registered as no 2 in my area as i went early.
S. O.
__________________________
______________________________________________________________
Sunday, January 16, 2011
THE TIDE
The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC ) may not be able to register the expected 70 millions adults Nigerians for the April general elections if flops experienced in the on going registration exercise is not corrected and check.
As at Sunday,the second day of the exercise,no units Rivers state have been able to register 15 persons,thereby making it impossible to meet up the 15 days deadline of the exercise.
Some units were yet to register one person,despite the impressive turnout of persons at various units and areas for the exercise.
The challanges been face includes Substandard equipment,thumbprint scanner,Printer problem,power source and inefficiency on the part of the adhoc staff of the INEC.
At Rumuwoji hall,ward 11,Port Harcourt Local government Area,the problem was associated with power,printer, thumbprint scanner.Some units could not register one person at as 12 noon on sunday.
The Tide also gathered that some of the adhoc staff are not ICT compliance and were trained for only 3 days for the exercise.
The exercise which witnessed alarge turnout in all the units turn out dissappointing to Nigerians who left their business and other engagement to be registered.
The police and Nigerian Road Safety officials leave up to their responsibility and cooperations with the INEC as they were in all units and centres to beef up security.
The chairman of INEC,Prof.Athiru jega on saturday admitted that there were some lapses in the exercise.
Jega who was in Otuoke,Bayelsa state for the Registration exercise of President Goodluck Jonathan reassured Nigerians that the commission was up to the task.
Although the registration of the President and his family did not present any hitch,Jega'smonitored of the exercise at the state capital however showed that there were difficulties with take off of the exercise.
He said they have beenchallenges of men and complains of the slow nature of finger printing process,it is likely that the scanner needs to be adjusted.
____________________________________________________________________
On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 2:09 PM, Mobolaji ALUKO <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear All:
Today is January 15, 2011, the first day of the make-or-break VOTERS REGISTRATION of INEC:
Registration of Voters
15th – 29th January, 2011
Pursuant to Section 9(5) of the Electoral Act, 2010
I would have expected that all the registration sites will be well-known now - on the pages of the newapers, available to the political parties, on INEC's website, etc.
So how has it gone today, everybody? Did any one take advantage of registering on this first day?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Bolaji Aluko
Yet to register
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