90% Of Lawmakers Won’t Return If Elections Are Transparent – Sowore

Omoyele Sowore

Popular human rights activist Omoyele Sowore has said that credible and transparent elections would dramatically change Nigeria’s political landscape. He recently had his say during Channels Television’s The Morning Brief while reacting to the controversy surrounding the amendment of the Electoral Act, particularly the provision on the transmission and collation of election results.

According to him, most current office holders would not retain their seats if the electoral act is amended because the current lawmakers are unwilling to sanction any amendment because such reforms would threaten their political survival.

Sowore added that the decision to keep manual collation is a subtle attempt to weaken the impact of electronic transmission of results.

His words, “This claim that some states do not have network coverage is just another excuse.

They are afraid of transparent elections because once elections become truly transparent, 90 per cent of those sitting in the National Assembly — and even those occupying other elected offices, including the presidency — will not be there.

The way the amendment was done is clever by half.

I am not impressed by these outdated arrangements.

By now, Nigeria should be looking at what countries like India are doing. India conducts elections for about 900 million registered voters using electronic voting, and the process is close to foolproof.

We have about 90 million voters here. If India can do it, there is no reason we should not be able to adopt electronic voting.”

WOW.