GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

In a fully electronic electoral management system, the entire electoral process— voter, party and candidate registration; verification of candidate support signatures; ballot production; electoral logistics; voter identification; voting in polling stations or remotely; vote counting; results transmission; and presentation of preliminary and final results of data—can all be performed by electronic and digital equipment and with very limited human intervention. This can only be achieved through ICT. Key benefits of electoral technology include accuracy, speed, efficiency and effectiveness. Specialized election technology vendors offer an ever increasing range of services to EMBs, but also require EMBs to be aware of the challenges involved in dealing with these companies. Voter education, public information and EMB staff expertise are important success factors for election technology implementations. With the introduction of electronic voting, countries such as Nigeria recognizes the need for technical expertise at the commission level and put more emphasis on ICT skills when carrying out election.

KEYWORDS: ICT, electoral technology, election technology vendors, voter education