Mobile Phones: A Panacea for the Implementation of E-voting in Nigeria

Abstract

Mobile phones have become the most ubiquitous telecommunication technology in developing countries and indeed, the world over, with its penetration rate outstripping those for internet users, fixed phone lines and broadband subscriptions. Services that are offered through mobile phones sometimes referred to as “m-services” could increase the utility of mobile phones to enhance human capabilities. One of such services is mobile voting (m-voting). However, owing to factors such as digital divides, low literacy level, deficits in communication infrastructures, poverty, poor capacity to develop and so on, providing such services  except in a highly localized nature, maybe an attendant problem in Nigeria and most developing countries. In this paper, an m-Voting framework was proposed using two of the communication channels of basic phones which are Short Message Service (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). Basic phones are easy to use and are increasingly able to bypass the barriers of illiteracy and affordability, and they provide access to a wide range of very useful services. The paper investigated the prospects of voting through mobile phones as a substantive voting platform in Nigeria with a view to foster enhanced participation and convenience of voters during electioneering processes.