The news was intended to break the internet, I mean why not? The headlines read “UNN Becomes The First University In Nigeria To Conduct A Full Biometric SUG Election”

This was the type of news that tickles every ear, more so a tech enthusiast like me. So I started digging to ascertain the reason for the fuss and hype around it. Turns out, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka had never used any form of electronic-based voting system for her student union elections. At this point, all on my mind is let’s see how this works. Was I pessimistic? well sadly, projects with good concepts, ideologies, and poor implementation are very common to us in this part of the world and so I set out scavenging for any information on the FairVote system (the name of the voting platform). That’s when I saw a poster dating back to 2017 where the National Association of Computer science students used the platform for their elections. Turns out the whole FairVote system was designed by students of the department. I could go further on the history of the system and its founders, Pyrangle Inc but that’s probably not why you’re reading this so let’s talk mode of operation and implementation.

**The photo shows the NACOSS Election poster with FairVote’s as NACOSS was their first client

General overview on how voting process and stages; First you register for the system at your faculty as each faculty was equipped with registration units. This duration varied from as short as 3 minutes to as long as 30–45 minutes depending on the queue size. Here, you register using your registration number, your phone number, passport and fingerprint details.

**The photo shows the registeration of voters at the faculty centers

After this, the next thing is to vote. You walk in the voting center, in this case, the Nnamdi Azikiwe E-Library was the voting center. At the door, you verify your details (biometric verification) and then a token is generated. That token becomes your password while your username remains your registration number. These two details are used to log in the platform, from there, you pick the candidate of your choice and then logout. After this, a physical checkout is required before leaving the venue.

I meant this was amazing, it meant students wouldn’t need to stay too long in queues in the hot afternoon all with the aim of voting in their preferred candidate. It also meant that students did not have to fear election rigging and manipulation of results. In all, it meant Transparency, better circumstances for voting and supposedly more involvement of students in the activity. YESS! its good news but did it go as planned?

**The photo shows the Vice-chancellor alongside some other high-profile members of the senate as they came oversee the process.

Short answer, YES but there’s a catch. I told you earlier in detail how the voting process was but didn’t say how it actually played out and to be honest, it sure was one hell of a ride. The next few lines tell my actual experience as brief as can be told without losing delicate details.

Thursday, the day before the election was when I registered. Now, this wasn’t my first attempt at registering, guess what? it was my third time as the previous attempts at registering all failed and here’s why. Now to be eligible to cast your vote there were only two basic requirements. The first being that you’re a student of the institution and the second that you’ve settled all pending fees. Regardless of the fact that I met both criteria, I was unable to register as they told me that my registration number wasn’t in the database for those that had no pending fees. Turned out it was a technical issue as the database was not in sync with the school’s database, in fact, they only synchronize the database once a week meaning if you paid your fees that week or at a very recent date you couldn’t register. this was later sorted out the week before the elections.

After getting this done, we set out to vote on Friday. I arrived at the voting center a little afternoon (around 1 pm). Sure, candidates still had their team campaigning at the gate as usual. On entering the premises, the staggering amount of students stuck up at the entrance to the hall was the first thing I noticed. Ha! The massive crowd made me reconsider going back or not but I did proceed further.

**The photo shows the biometric verification process at the entrance into the ICT Hall.

Luckily for me, I met a friend of mine who happened to be an agent for one of the candidates and with a little influence, I got in the hall in no time. Now, it was time for the initial biometric verification. At this stage, there were two categories of verification. The first one using Fingerprint(biometric) and the second option being a short Q and A in a bid to verify the voter’s identity. The second option I believe was intended for students duly registered but seem to be having issues with the biometric verification. I opted for the second option and received my token/key. With that I proceeded into the ICT hall, logged in and began the main voting (selection of candidates). The UI (user interface) was designed to look a lot like that of the CBT (computer-based tests) that students are already familiar with it.

**The photo shows Students voting on the Computers

After Voting, I checked out and was told that to expect some sort of digital receipt containing my selected choices which I never got. It took roughly 7 minutes to get in and out of the premises and this was amazing. This stuff usually takes hours to complete. Overall my experience was quite smooth Although some persons reported having spent over 30 to 60 minutes before getting in the main hall to cast their votes due to the crowd. The implementation was great, maybe not as great as it could be but I say it’s a very wonderful start.

At this point, my inner pessimist turned to be disappointed as we expected a much more amazing experience (Sarcastically speaking). As it is, I can say that this is a great step towards embracing a digital Economy as it also turns out to be a major agenda in the current National Administration. It’s started, and it’s now in all our hands not just to passively embrace, but to be stakeholders in pushing this digitalization through all sectors of our economy.

**Photo credits to Pyrangle, Favour Nnachetam, UNNOnline, Mokwenye Favour (Myself)