The Role of Technology in the Management of Electoral Challenges in Nigeria's Fourth Republic

Abstract

Elections in Nigeria's fourth republic have been marked by series of electoral malpractices and fraud as evidencedin the number and outcome oitigations that follow each round of elections. The most recent, are the controversies and litigations that followed the 2023 presidential election. As a way of dealing with this problem, theIndependent National Electoral Commission in 2011, introduced technology into the registration segment of the electoral process, and has progressively introduced innovative technology to curb the menace of electoral fraud and to ensure electoral integrity. The paper examined the contributions of the technological innovations used by INEC in the 2015, 2019 and 2023 general elections. Digital Governance theory served as the framework, while a qualitative desk research design was adopted for the study. Data were mainly sourced from secondary sources. Findings revealed that the Automated Fingerprint Identication System, the Permanent Voter Card and the Smart Card Reader used in 2015 and 2019, and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System as well as the Result Viewing Portal used in 2023 have collectively contributed in raisingthe sanityof voter registerthereby reducing cases of multiple registration;enhancing more accurate voter identication;and increased the level of citizen condence on the process. This paper therefore, argued that the gradual integration of technology into the electoral process is the most potent way of curbing the intractable menace of electoral malfeasance in Nigeria. It concludes that the most potent threat to technological opportunities is the 'human factor'.