By Patrick Obia
Gender development expert, Mrs. Emilia Eyo has opined that electronic voting is where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have started to enable more participation especially women.
She made her view known on topical radio program ‘The Dialogue With Agba Jalingo’ on Hit 95.9fm, Calabar.
This is coming on the recently conducted Governorship and House of Assembly elections which witnessed low turnout of voters across the 18 LGAs of Cross River State.
In her point of view, Emilia Eyo said: “One of the things I think INEC can do is to look at the electoral laws again to see what other strategies they can put in place to ensure that elections are fair. Sometimes when we do normal online polls within candidates to see who people will prefer, that is when you see the genuine election taking place because you’re not forcing people; people just go in and click online and say this is who I want and it gives you automatically during the polls who people prefer.
“Electronic voting is where we would have started, then you will see Nigerians come out, they will sit in their homes and vote en mass. It is one of the beautiful things that will happen if and when we get there. The unfortunate situation about women, I think that we need to actually hold our present Government accountable; making a deliberate effort to ensuring it is five percent affirmative action is being done; not necessarily as an appointee but from the party level to ensuring that women go in, vote and are voted for. The number of women in governance, in fact the whole elections shows that we have taken ten steps backwards”. She ended.
The gender developer therefore called on women to get more into politics at different party level, not limiting themselves to the kitchen along.