The Electoral Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (ECNBA) has issued the below guideline for the verification and electronic voting for the forthcoming election of National Executives.
Also contained in the publication below are issues relating to post election events and audits.
2022 ELECTIONS OF NATIONAL OFFICERS OF THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION (NBA) AND NBA REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE BAR (ELECTIONS) ELECTORAL COMMITTEE 2022 (ECNBA) C/O NATIONAL SECRETARIAT, PLOT 110, OFF MUHAMMED BUHARI WAY, CB
GUIDELINE FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING
ELECTIONS OF NATIONAL OFFICERS OF THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION (NBA) AND NBA REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE BAR (ELECTIONS) GUIDELINE FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING
1.0 Pursuant to Part VI(1) Second Schedule of the Constitution of the NBA 2015 (as amended in 2021) (‘Constitution’), the Elections shall be conducted by electronic voting in accordance with the guidelines stipulated by the ECNBA.
This guideline is issued to ensure that the electronic voting processes for the Elections are seamless, free, and fair.
2.0 VOTERS VERIFICATION
All members of the Association shall be eligible to vote at the general election for National offices provided that such member must belong to a Branch and must have paid their practicing fees as at when due and are duly registered to vote at that election (Part IV (6), Second Schedule of the Constitution.
The full list of members of the Association qualified to vote (Voters’ Register) will be published by the ECNBA in an electronic format on the NBA website: https://nigerianbar.org.ng/ and on the ECNBA Website: https://www.ecnba.ng/ no later than forty-five (45) clear days before the date of the election as stipulated by Part IV (9) and V(4) Second Schedule of the Constitution.
Eligible members are enjoined to visit the designated to verify the accuracy of information as it pertains to them.
If a member’s information on the designated portal are inaccurate, he or she should send an e-mail or call phone number that will be provided for support to members of the Association for verification purposes.
The Voters’ Register will be updated daily, for audit purposes and for an efficient tracking of all corrections or changes, the old and new values shall be retained.
The final Voters’ Register signed off by the ECNBA will be published for the 2022 Elections at the end of the period designated for voters’ verification by the ECNBA.
After the official close of voters’ verification, no addition or subtraction will be entertained after the designated period.
The final Voters Register will be uploaded on the electronic voting platform for the Elections.
3.0 MOCK ELECTION
A mock election is a process used to test-run an election process using a subset of data and users to ascertain that the system will run the way it is intended during the main Elections.
The ECNBA may conduct a mock election which will entail the following set of activities:
Uploading of the Candidates data on the e-Voting platform, categorizing them respectively into positions being vied for.
Performing a mock election with a subset of voters to test run the platform in readiness for the main election.
Test run the collating and publishing of result functionality of the electronic voting platform.
4.0 PRE-ELECTION
Pre-election activities involve:
Dispatching the electronic voting login credentials to all the eligible voters, via Email, SMS, while also providing a platform that the eligible voter can visit and request for the credentials to be sent to them in case they did not receive the first dispatch.
Voters are encouraged to test their login prior to the election date; however, the voting functionality will not yet be active.
The phone and email helpdesk will be available to support and resolve any issues lawyers are having with being able to access the voting platform.
5.0 THE ELECTION
As stated in Preliminary Notice of 17 March 2022 electronic voting will commence from 00:00 hours to 23:59 hours on Saturday, 16 July 2022.
During the election period, all eligible voters will connect to the electronic voting platform with their credential and will be able to cast their votes.
The names of candidates for the various offices will be displayed on the electronic voting platform and voters will be able to select their preferred candidates by clicking the box next to their names and will subsequently confirm their selection and submit.
Upon submission, a voter cannot go back to the page to cast another vote not even with the browser back button.
6.0 THE PLATFORM
The Electronic voting platform for the elections have the following features:
Accessible from Internet connected devices like phones, Tablets and Personal computers using standard browsers.
Internet connection is required.
All communication with the electronic voting platform will be secure and encrypted using industry standard.
Single login per voter, login in with same username concurrently will not be supported.
Authentication will use multi-factor, a unique combination of username, Password, One-time-Password (OTP) and Security certificates.
The platform is optimized for the various form factors, to make the voting process seamlessly irrespective of the device being used to access it
7.0 ELECTION AUDIT
All activities on the platform with be logged in real time which includes IP address, profile name, time of login and logout, administrative logins, and changes.
