ICT and Electoral Management: The need for Forensic Investigation in Electoral process in Nigeria

Two of the contentious problems generating crisis at election years in Nigeria has been the issue of multiple registration and multiple voting. These were discovered at the 2007 Governorship Elections in Ekiti and Osun States. These two forms of electoral malpractices were subject of litigations for years after the election and led to upturning of electoral victory of elected governors when the forensic experts tendered evidences before Electoral Petition Tribunals and later confirmed by Appeal Court. This paper therefore argued that though a step was taken by INEC in 2011 elections to guard against multiple registrations by introducing data capturing machine. This however, is not foul-proof. There are still cases of collusion by INEC Officials to frustrate efforts to guide against multiple registration and consequently, multiple voting. The position of this paper therefore is that, instead of waiting for years to prove cases of multiple registrations and voting by forensic experts hired by the political parties and their candidates, the Electoral Act can be amended to accommodate forensic investigation by finger-print experts before the declaration of election results. The investigation will however be determined by the type and scope of the election. The forensic investigation will also save the nation credibility crisis and non-violent conduct of election. The device will sort out the wheat from chaff in term of multiple voting. The paper which traces history of electoral crisis in Nigeria and adopted documentary method concluded that it is only this technological/ICT device that can discourage multiple registration and voting. This will enhance electorate confidence in the electoral process and non-violent conduct of election