Former President Goodluck Jonathan has admonished the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy technology in electoral processes to achieve free and fair elections in member states.
This was stated on Thursday in Monrovia by Jonathan at the extraordinary session of the ECOWAS Parliament.
He said with the deployment of technology, manipulation and rigging of elections results can be eliminated.
“If full technology is deployed at all stages in the electoral process, elections will be free and fair and completely eliminate the manipulation and rigging of results,” he said.
“When technology is deployed across the board, you will find out that people can even vote from the comfort of their homes or in their cars.
“And by so doing, politicians will no longer have the opportunity to engage thugs and criminals to stuff ballot boxes, cause mayhem and disrupt the electoral process.”
He said citizens of the sub-region often lose confidence in their leaders who they believe to have manipulated the electoral system.
The deployment of technology, according to Jonathan, will hinder the manipulation of electoral processes by sit-tight African leaders.
“If technology is deployed, African presidents who refuse to relinquish power even when they have lost election will find it difficult to manipulate the process,’’ he said.
“This is more so because it will be the prerogative of the people to choose to vote them out or allow them to continue in power.”