Management of The Polytechnic Ibadan has keyed into the fourth industrial revolution driven by digital technology by introducing an Electronic Voting System for the conduct of the just concluded Students Union (SUG) Government elections held on Wednesday, 13th November, 2019 at its Sango campus.

The elections, which was  first of its kind in the institution commenced around 11am and  ended at 6pm. An HND 1 student of public administration, Fadare Blessing emerged as the President with 1226 votes,  while his closest rival, Salako Oluwatosin, polled  1149 votes in an election which many adjudged as peaceful, transparent, free and fair. Also, Adekola Yussuf emerged as the General Secretary with 903 votes to defeat Fasesan Toheeb who scored 755 votes.

At the collation centre, housing the agents, electoral committee amid tight security, also displayed  real time results through projected media .

Speaking on the new innovation, the  Deputy Registrar, Student Affairs, Mrs Ayoade Abosede Olu informed that the new initiative was to avert post-election acrimony and also to curb electoral violence which has been a tradition in the institution during electioneering period.

According to her, “we started very well and its going on very well. It is the best option that we have now and kudos to the school management for coming out with this idea. The election has been on since morning and you can see people sitting down no tension, we are okay.

“Before now, the election is always mar with violence and crisis but now we all have our peace. The voting is going on peacefully. Students don’t need to be on campus before voting once they can access the portal.

“Both the students and management prefer this system of voting because, there is less stress and it cost-less. Although, there are few challenges but  I am sure that there will be improvement in subsequent elections”, Ayoade assured.

The  implementation of the e-voting system, just like every other noble idea, is not without its challenges,  she, however disclosed some of  the challenges the exercise faced at the commencement of the election.

“The complaint we had was that some people are voting outside by hacking into the system but that has been resolved everything is normal now. It took us a long time before we can calm the candidates down and convince them about this option. We are supposed to have this election since August but we shifted it now to perfect the system because we don’t want any crisis  or post-election violence”.

Also corroborating her, the institution’s Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Soladoye Adewole explained that the management set up electoral committee which included Faculty officers, Student representative council (SRC), Student Press Council and others to decide on what modalities to adopt for the election and the e-voting was the best option.

He stressed that the introduction of the e-voting system became imperative so as to  eliminate doubt and fear of election rigging as the system is tension-free, adding that the new initiative has helped to reduce the cost of campaign during election.

Soladoye said, “ We settled for the e-voting, streamlined the pre-election process , midwived and put the process in place and the students were carried along. There was no tension, ballot snatching, killing, because they voted in their comfort zones. It is tension free.

The Polytechnic Ibadan image maker , however noted that there were few challenges, but reassured that  more efforts would be channeled towards improving and sustaining the new system.

Some of the agents at the collation center who spoke with our reporter lauded the ingenuity of the management. They further called for the need for improvement on the system.

According to  Akpeji Clement, one of the agents, “this is the first time the Polytechnic Ibadan is organizing such an innovative set up of voting online. It is a very good one. Before now there were a lot of anxieties. Students were wondering how it will go about especially how they would log on to the website. But with what we have seen, everything is going on  fine, we hope that other institutions and the government would emulate this innovation to reduce electoral violence.

“With this system of voting, we have no option than to be satisfied with the outcome of the election. Although a lot of students were unable to vote based on the fact that we have to log in with our second semester school fee receipts. The fact that I have not paid my school fee receipt doesn’t mean that I am not a bonafide student of the Polytechnic of Ibadan”,

Another agent, Oyekunle Yusuf, who called for the need for voters education summited, “we are aware but I think they need to give us demo to know how to go about it. Not every students are familiar with this new system. But it is a very democratic way of electing our leaders”

Mega Icon Magazine reliably gathered  that some students made effort to break into the system, but the management was in complete control of the situation.

No doubt, the alternative electronic voting has demonstrated great advantages especially in introducing efficiency at the vote tallying stage of the election. It is indeed, a secured approach to guarantee the sanctity of the process, but can be improved upon.