ABSTRACT
In recent years, information technology
has greatly affected all aspects of our national life, and to a large extent,
this includes politics. One basic feature of democracy that cuts across all
divides of people is the act of election. Traditional manual methods of
conducting elections are no longer preferred because of the long period of preparation,
violence, rigging, dis-enfranchization of eligible voters, over-voting,
mistakes made in counting the votes, long period of counting and high cost of
voting process etc. The most recent method being advocated for is electronic
voting (e-voting). E-voting is an
election system that allows a voter to record his or her secure and secret
ballotelectronically.
This work showed how e-voting through the use of mobile devices like tablets, Ipads
and PCswould
totally eradicate all these problems as people would no longer go to election
venues to cast their votes, rather they would be at the comfort of their homes
and offices to exercise their franchise using any of these electronic devices
effortlessly.
The application was achieved via means
of object oriented software development with the .NET framework. The core web services
were implemented with the C# programming language. The design structure was
modularized and the design utilized the use of voter identification number and
password for voter authentication, as well as token generation for security.
In conclusion, the problems of trust and
confidence in the electoral process in Nigeria can be solved if the electoral
body embarks on a web-based process. It is recommended that E-voting systems
should be certified by an independent agency and audits should be conducted
throughout the process to allow independent confirmation of the results
produced.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
page
Abstract
Table
of Contents
List
of Figures
List
of Codes
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
1.1.1 Elections in Nigeria
1.1.2 The 2011 General Election
1.1.3 The 2015 General Election in Nigeria
1.1.4 Smart Card Readers
1.1.5 Electronic Voting
1.1.6 The Nigerian Electoral Process
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objective of the Study
1.4 Methodology
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope of the Study
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Types of E-Voting Systems
2.1.1 Forms of E-Voting
2.1.2 Properties of Electronic Voting Systems
2.2 Related Works
CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
3.1.1 Ease of Use and Simplicity
3.1.2 Efficiency
3.1.3 Security
3.1.4 User
Experience (UX)
3.1.5
Scalability
3.1.5.1
Programming Platform
3.1.5.2 Caching
Mechanisms
3.1.5.3
Simplicity
3.1.5.4 Data
Flow
3.1.5.5 Hardware
Resources
3.1.6 Applied
Methodology
3.2 Research
Method
3.3 Research Tools
3.4 The Software Development
3.4.1 Planning
Phase
3.4.2 Design
3.5 Hardware/Software
Requirements
3.6 Ethical
Consideration (Post- Research Benefits)
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND
DISCUSSIONOF FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Voter Validation
4.1.1 Voter Information
4.1.2 Token Generation
4.1.3 Voting
4.1.4 Result Display
4.1.5 Settings
4.1.6 Elections Controller
4.2 Discussion
4.2.1 Atribute of the Designed
System
4.2.2 The Layout
4.2.3 The Web Services
4.2.4 User Experience
and Simplicity
4.2.5 Application
Security
4.2.6 Database
Consideration
4.3: System Requirement
4.3.1: Software Requirements
4.3.2: Hardware Requirement
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Chapter FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Summary
5.2. Conclusion
5.3. Recommendations
References
Appendix
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Conducting a
credible election in Nigeria is increasingly becoming a very difficult task,
and this has adversely affected the socio-political and economic well-being of
the nation and its citizenry. Encyclopedia
Britannica defined an election as a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual
mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government.
This process is also used in many other private and business organizations,
from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.
According to
Ginsberg (2007), Election is the procedure that allows
members of an organization or community
to choose representatives who will hold positions of authority within it. The
most important elections select the leaders of local, state, and national
governments. The chance to decide who will govern at these levels, serves as an
opportunity for the public to make choices about the policies, programs, and
future directions of government action. Election is a critical component of any
democratic society. As such, Nigeria returned to democratic rule and engagement
with the democratic process led to the conduct of its general elections in
1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. General elections are elections conducted in
the federation at large for federal and state elective positions.
Election is said
to be credible when the outcome of such election is acceptable to generality of
the people especially if the loser demonstrates the spirit of sportsmanship
occasioned by the electoral process transparency. Free, fair and credible
elections are central to electoral democracy and provide vital means of
empowering citizens to hold their leaders accountable. In a multi-party democracy,
it behoves both the elected and appointed government officials at all levels of
the political system to render periodic account of their stewardship to the
populace. However, accountability of public officials in Nigeria has been
undermined by the fact that elections in
the country are perennially fraught with irregularities. The
democratization of politics has been unsuccessful in arresting electoral frauds
perpetrated by different political parties and megalomaniac politicians.
According to Nnoli (2003), “elections are so clearly tied to the growth and
development of representative democratic government that they are now generally
held to be the single most important indicator of the presence or absence of
such government”. They are meaningfully democratic if they are free, fair,
participatory, credible, competitive and legitimate.
1.1.1 Elections
in Nigeria: 1999-2007
The history of
democratic elections in Nigeria especially ones that would be adjudged and
accepted by the electorates as free and fair had always been a problem in the
country. The 1999, 2003 and 2007 general elections, three elections conducted
during this period of ten years of Nigeria’s democracy have been lampooned by
many critics as far from free and fair (Ahmed 2015). At
inception of the Fourth Republic, the 1999 elections were conducted under
military rule. There were fundamental flaws in the elections, but Nigerians
wanted to get rid of military rule and have power transferred to civilians.
They tolerated and accommodated the outcome, and hoped for future improvements.
The 2003 elections, unfortunately, did not represent a substantive improvement
over the 1999 elections, in terms of transparency and credibility. Rather, the
elections at best represented “business as usual”, in terms of inflation of
votes, fraudulent declaration of results, use of armed thugs to scare away or
assault voters and cart away election materials and many other irregularities
and illegalities, which were committed with impunity (Jega 2015) . The election of April 2007, conducted by the
existing electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under
the leadership of Maurice Iwu has been described as the worst election ever
held in this country as a result of indescribable irregularities which marred
the elections (Ahmed 2015)
The election itself was characterized by
all manner of malpractices many of which reflected both the inefficiency and
fraudulent complicity of INEC. A few examples shall suffice, late display of
electoral register in violation of the Electoral Act, Omission of names of
registered voters from the list, Muddling up of names of registered voters as
voter’s names appeared in the wards other than the one they were expected to
vote, Lack of transparency in the choice of returning officers (allegedly
chosen by the ruling PDP) None or late supply of election materials,
Announcement of results figures in contradiction to the number of registered
voters or the number that actually voted. Many of the results were in favour of
the ruling Party PDP. Refusal to furnish opposition parties or candidates
result sheets and other documents that will enable them challenge their defeat
in at the electoral tribunal. These malpractices were repeated with extra
expertise and boldness in 2007. Partisanship and fraud became an official
policy of INEC. INEC officials acted with impunity thus robbing it on the face
of the helpless voters that they can do nothing. Results were announced even
where no voting took place at all, in many pooling boots result sheets were
deliberately not supplied. Hotels and private houses were used for thumb
printing to the glare knowledge of security operatives who even aided many of
the frauds Obianyo and Emesibe (2015). All the previous elections from 1999 till 2011 were all
manually done but that of 2015 embraced some elements of ICT in action
1.1.2 the 2011 General Election
The process started with the re
–registration of voters exercise, and the introduction of the direct data
capture (DDC) machine for capturing finger prints of would be voters, among
other measures put together by INEC. In all, INEC’s conduct of the 2011 April
election by far surpassed their previous efforts as also confirmed by the
various election observers that monitored the elections.
Challenges/Limitations
The 2011 general elections in Nigeria
despite being applauded had some shortcomings observed before, during and after
the conduct of the election. There were still cases of ballot box snatching in
spite of the open/secret system of voting. There were also rampant cases of
underage registration and voting. The Adhoc INEC officials who resisted the
pressure to register minors and allow them vote were threatened and harassed
into submission. It is amazing to have heard cases of multiple thumb-printing
despite the availability of Direct Data capture machines that were used to
register prospective voters electronically. Another sympathetic and traumatic
aspect of the elections is the post- election violence experienced in some
Northern States. According to Nigerian’s Civil Right Congress, more than five
hundred were killed in the post- election violence. The most painful part of
the scenario was the attack and killing of youth corps members as a result of
post electoral violence.
1.1.3 The 2015 General Election in Nigeria
The 2015 general election in Nigeria saw
the introduction of the permanent voter’s card (PVC) as well as the smart card
reader to authenticate the number of accredited voters during the election. The
introduction of technological driven voter authentication shaped the elections
and gave it public acceptance. INEC's
greatest achievement was the production and distribution of high tech permanent
voters card (PVC) with biometric data capable of serving the system for a long
time and thus puts to rest the onerous task of always embarking on new
registration exercise during tenure of a new INEC chief executive. This
achievement does not in any way preclude the usual exercise of updating the
register. Apart from saving the nation the high cost of constantly embarking on
new registration exercise, the PVC and associated Card Reader(CR) infused a lot
of credibility to the voting process given the malfeasance associated with the
voting process in previous elections especially that of 2003 and 2007.
1.1.4
Smart Card Readers
The smart card reader
is a technological device setup to authenticate and verify on election day a
Permanent Voter Card (PVC) issued by INEC. The device uses a cryptographic
technology that has ultra-low power consumption, with a single core frequency
of 1.2GHz and an Android 4.2.2. Operating System (IDEA, 2011). . The INEC card reader is a portable
electronic voter authentication device, configured to only read the Permanent
Voter Cards issued by INEC. The card reader was designed specifically for
the accreditation process, authentication of eligible voters before voting. The
machine was configured to only read the PVCs of a particular polling unit and
can only work on election day. The card reader uses a highly secure and
cryptographic technology that is used commonly in devices that need to
perform secure
transactions, such as paying terminals. The device is
positioned by its operator (usually a trained INEC official) to read the
embedded chip on the PVC, this procedure display the information of the voter,
followed by fingerprinting. It usually takes about 10 to 20 seconds to validate
a voter. The card reader has the ability to perform the above described
functions as well as keeping a tally of the total numbers of voters accredited
at the polling unit and forwarding the information to a central database server
over a Global System for Mobile (GSM) network (Engineering Network Team, 2015)
Concerned about the massive electoral
fraud witnessed in the past general elections in Nigeria, INEC deployment of
the card reader in 2015 general elections was to ensure a credible,
transparent, free and fair election in order to deepen Nigeria's electoral
democracy. However, the use of this electronic device in the 2015 general
elections generated debate among stakeholders before, during and after the
elections .Okonji, (2015) writes that despite the confidence of INEC in the use
of card reader in the 2015 general elections, the machines came with some
challenges, even though the elections have been widely adjudged as being
successful. For instance, during the March 28 Presidential and National
Assembly elections across the country, the card readers malfunctioned in
several polling units, a situation that polling units.
The challenges ranged from rejection of
permanent voter's card (PVC) by the card readers, inability to capture the
biometrics from finger tips, to irregular capturing and fast battery drainage.
INEC officials have to abandon their polling units and took the card readers
back to their office for proper configuration. In order to salvage the
situation, which was almost becoming frustrating, INEC ordered the use of
manual process for accreditation, But before the order could go round the
states and local government areas, it was already late to conduct accreditation
and actual voting in some areas, a situation that forced INEC to extend the
exercise to the next day in all affected areas. Adegoke, (2015) on his own
opined that the use of card reading machine in Nigerian electoral process has
become a highly-contentious issue, especially amongst the political class, such
that Nigerians are asking if the card reading machine is a failure or success.
In essence, there is a sharp divide amongst the exponents and the antagonists
of this innovation. While the promoters strongly feel that card reader is the
best thing for the country—as such will, to an extent, minimize electoral
malpractices, boost the image of the country amongst the comity of nations and
give Nigeria a credible election. The antagonists, however, feel, amongst other
things, that Nigeria has not yet mature for such innovation. On its own, the ruling
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) argued that in as much as they are not afraid
of its usage, INEC must ensure that no Nigerian voter was disenfranchised by
the machine
1.1.5 Electronic Voting: Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting using electronic means to record or count votes. .
With the rapid expansion of the Internet, electronic voting appears to be a
less expensive alternative to the conventional paper voting. Electronic voting
overcomes the problem of geographic distribution of the voters as well as vote
administrators. It also reduces the chances of errors in the voting process. Electronic voting technology can speed the counting
of ballots, reduce the cost of paying staff to count votes manually and can
provide improved accessibility for disabled voters. This system ensures
that people can get official election results within hours, instead of days or
even weeks. Forward-thinking countries and
election commissions are keen to explore how it can help them improve their
elections. For some nations, automated elections mean that people can trust the
results because it allows for a process that is so auditable, transparent and
secure. Of course, electronic voting also helps reduce human error. For other
countries, particularly large ones like Brazil, India, Nigeria and the
Philippines, electronic voting and electronic counting means that people can
get official election results within hours, instead of weeks. Again, this
builds trust of the electorates in the electoral process. In an
election, it is vitally important that everyone who is eligible to participate
in elections can do so, meaning that it’s easier for even disable people to
vote independently. Given the high penetration of mobile devices in the world
today, one potential way to address the challenges of electoral malpractices is
to connect government electoral resources with mobile devices to enable a wider
participation of citizens in the electoral process (Alabi 2011).
Mobile devices have now become so embedded in
human life that people are utilising them to transact all kinds of business
activities. Citizens of many countries of the world are beginning to believe
that one way to enforce openness, transparency, and accountability in their
government’s electoral processes is to draw on the power of technology to
conduct voting anywhere, anytime (Alvarez
and Hall 2010). Voting using mobile
devices, with the associated benefits of providing mobile convenience and
fostering mass participation in the electoral process, is increasingly being
demanded by citizens (McGrane 2013). Electronic voting (e-Voting) is one of
such areas where the impact of ICT is sought globally, particularly in the
developing nations of the world, to help ameliorate some of the problems
plaguing the electoral processes. Traditional voting systems were developed to
ensure strict compliance with the principles of democratic elections and
referendums.
1.1.6 The Nigerian Electoral Process
The electoral process includes the
selection of candidates, the registration of voters and the voting procedures.
A secure electoral process is important in the context of good government,
human rights and poverty elimination. The need for a secure electoral process
cannot be over-emphasized as the absence of this will not only bring about the
possibility of abuse, but the process and the result may be open to legal
challenge. This could undermine the stability and authority of a newly elected
body or office.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
Elections the world over are usually
plagued with a myriad of challenges that do not make the elections turn out
hitch-free. Specifically in the last general elections in Nigeria, some
challenges were experienced with the introduction of a semi-automated electoral
system via the use of smart card readers in the electoral process. The use of
the card reader was associated with several downsides which include breakdown,
malfunction, issues with PVC authentication and biometric data verification of
the voters, inability of the card readers to identify some finger/thumbprints.
This study therefore aims at designing a
web-based electoral system, with an online voting solution that would by-pass
the use of smart card readers in the electoral process.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The main objective of this study is to design a
web-based electoral system with an online voting solution. The specific objectives
are to:
1.
by-pass the use
of smart card readers with its attendant issues in Nigeria’s general elections;
2.
eliminate
electoral violence and other challenges associated with manual voting methods
and
3.
evaluate the
performance of the designed system.
1.4 Methodology
1. The literature review would include the
following:
Search of related literature on the electioneering
process from several journals found on Google scholar, IEEE and ACM digital
libraries
Classification of the literature into categories based
on the problems discussed.
Choice of the category with the problem of interest
Identification of the gap the study intends to fill
2. The
web-based electoral system would be built to consist of a user interface that
will used to put in user information into the system; a database that would
store for all the information gathered from voters and a counter that will run
on Java.
The
web-based electoral system would have its interface designed using the
following tools:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate with inbuilt C#,
IIS, MsSQL, web Service, scripting and Styling support.
C# Programming Language
Microsoft SQL (MsSQL)
HTML
Client Scripting (jQuery/Angular)
Bootstrap CSS framework
Internet Information Systems (IIS) Server
The
system will utilize a web service or rather a RESTful (Representational State
Transfer) where C# will be used to code back end and the web service whereas
html, css, client-side scripting files will be used at the front end. The
Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA1) will be used to encrypt the passwords that will
enable voters exhibit their franchise.
1.5 Significance
of the Study
An electronic voting is an electronic
system that would allow voters to transmit their secure and secret voted ballot
to election officials over the internet. The proposed system is convenient because with the
well-designed software and system, the voters can simply use their own
equipment with minimal time and skill to complete the voting process.
E-voting has been recognized as a tool for advancing democracy, building trust
in electoral management, adding credibility to election results, and increasing
the overall efficiency of the electoral process. The proposed system has the
potential to eliminate most common flaws of traditional card reader system,
eliminates election fraud, speed up vote counting and election result
processing, make voting more convenient for citizens. Voters use mobile devices
to vote anytime and anywhere using mobiles smart device such as phones, ipad
, tablets, etc. Using electronic voting saves money from reducing the
personnel expense for example, expense for location management
and administration fee. The whole electoral process and result
declaration is faster than the traditional card reader system. By clicking just
a small button, one can summit your voting to the system, it is much faster
than the traditional ballot counting method currently in operation in Nigeria.
1.6 Scope
of the Study
The study examined the electioneering
process in Nigeria and bring to light the perennial problems that have hitherto
prevented the process from being free, fair and credible. The research would
use Nigeria’s 2015 general elections as a case study to investigate the real election
situation and see how best this proposed system can be used to nip the
challenges facing the electioneering process in Nigeria in the bud.
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