Goodluck Jonathan, a former Nigerian president, has called for Nigeria to embrace electronic voting in order to uphold its democratic values.
This was announced by the former president at a lecture/book presentation in Port Harcourt on Monday to mark the second term inauguration of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
Dr. Jonathan said that if democracy must endure, the democratic process must be developed in a way that people will have confidence in the electoral process.
He noted that the African Continent must come up with a minimum standard for the establishment of the Election Management Body.
Dr. Jonathan said for the purpose of confidence building for credible elections, no single person should have the power to constitute the Election Management Body.
He said: “We must come up with new standards for constituting our election management body in a way that people will have confidence.
I believe in some quarters what they do is that a body of people constitutes the Election Management Body. It is not in the hands of one person.
“When you leave such responsibility in the hands of a politician, no matter how good the person is, there will be a tendency for people to suspect that the right thing is not done. When people don’t have confidence in the system, whatever they do, it is difficult for the people to accept.”
According to him, “The continental body, African Union, should come up with a minimum standard across Africa for constituting Electoral Management Body”.
