Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has said he looked forward to a time when Nigeria would be able to conduct all her elections in one day, possibly through electronic voting.
Speaking shortly after casting his vote at his country home, Isan Ekiti, the governor said the current election schedule where elections into all elective positions are conducted separately “is not a good use of time and effort”.
Fayemi expressed optimism that the country would take advantage of technological advancement and switch to electronic voting to enhance seamless voting process that will enable the electorate exercise their voting right while going about their normal daily work.
The governor, however, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for quickly addressing some hiccups that could have paralysed the smooth conduct of the 2019 general elections; saying that he would be happy if the process run smoothly in all parts of the State just as the card reader worked perfectly in Isan Ekiti where he voted.
“The card reader work, my fingerprint was read and it took less than a minute for me to do these and vote. If it is like this everywhere, we really have to give kudos to INEC. There may have been some errors in the past but they have quickly corrected those and they have done well in this election.
“I look forward to a time when all the elections can actually happen in one day. This is not a good use of our time the time we commit to this effort, the man working hour is just too much. So we hope technology will improve, we hope to get to the point of electronic voting and get to the point where everything can be smooth and fast and we can combine work with voting”, he said.
The governor, who voted at 11:28am, said the election went reasonably well and peaceful but turnout was lower than it was during the presidential election a fortnight ago.
His words: “I have been in touch with virtually every local government and community in the state. The election has gone reasonably well, peaceful and the poll officials got to their units on time and voters were treated respectfully. It appears that we have a low turn out today, lower than we recorded during the presidential and NASS election two weeks ago”.
