Electoral Process and Technology in Nigeria: Trends, issues, benefits and challenges

This paper examined the influence of technology on the conduct of election in Nigeria with a view to identifying the trends, issues, benefits and challenges of these technologies. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used. The Primary source of data was participant observation while secondary sources included the use of text books, journals and materials from the internet. The study revealed that the conduct of elections dated back to the colonial era while digitalization of the Electoral process started in 2002. Furthermore, the study discovered that technologies introduced so far in the conduct of elections have been confronted with a lot of infrastructural problems, and socio-economic and political challenges. The benefits of these technologies include but are not limited to reduction in the cost of election, elimination of laborious counting and sorting of votes, last minute changes of information on computer and a host of others. Issues of concern include security of the voting machine, procurement of relevant equipment and test running of the technology. The study concluded that despite all these issues and challenges, it is worthwhile to introduce new technologies in the conduct of elections in the country.