chapter one2003 of voting system

7/29/2019 Chapter One2003 of voting system

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Backround of the Study

Man as a political animal has always wanted to maintain his place distinct from

brute animals. This has been realized through different methods and systems he has

employed in his political advancement. The word politics etymologically is from

two Greek words; polis and techne, which mean city and skill or art, respectively

(Nwodo, 1998). Thus, politics literally means the art of governing a city. Politics

then involves the art of organizing men in a society to live and interact with each

other to the full realization of their social nature (Nwoko, 1998). Politics therefore

deals with the state and its citizenry, whereby the citizens freely entrust to an

individual the responsibility of organizing them. In a democratic society, electoral

process is the means through which this objective is achieved. This is because in a

democratic system of government, it is the citizens that choose their leaders, and

disenfranchising the citizens this right often leads to political instability. Looking

at the political situation in Nigeria that has progress from one republic to another,

one cannot but ask, why is the Nigeria polity instability? No one can ignore the

uncertainty and the volatility that are characteristic of todays African political

settings. The Nigerian experience is no exception of this instability. When

instability is qualified by the adjective political, a whole configuration of ideas

comes to play. This is partly because; the idea of politics refers to the manner in

which a country is governed. According to C S Nwodo, politics has to do with the

manner of ruling a people and directing the lives of the citizens of a country, of

arriving at decisions concerning public affairs or matters of public interest, of

making fundamental choices and decisions that affect the lives of the citizens

(Nwodo, 1998). Political instability would then mean a bad government, because

the welfare of the citizens that suppose to be its primary objective is not


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guaranteed. Hornbys definition of democracy already mentioned, underscores the

basic element of the discourse. It throws light about the significance of election

and the fundamental right of every adult in a given society. The central idea linking

democracy and electoral system is the good life for the citizens, which could only

be lived by active participation in the life of the city-state (Urger, 2007). When

this fundamental right of participating in the city-state is denied him, the result

could spell anarchy for the polity. It has already been pointed out that in a

democratic government all adult citizens participate in politics through their

elective representative. This underlines the fact that, the stability of any

government depends largely on its electoral system. In other words, electoral

system is the basis for social development. Reversely, inapt electoral system no

doubt will definitely lead to anarchy. It is in this light that electoral system in

Nigeria may be considered as the bane of political instability in the country. A

survey of the different elections so far conducted in Nigeria lends credence to this

assertion. Main reasons for rigging in elections are due to lack of accurate voting

system. Presently ballot voting and electronic voting systems are widely used

voting methods in the world but these systems are not accurate as they are not used

to get genuine result. It is against this backdrop that this work aims at looking at

the Nigeria electoral system as the bane of its political instability. Voting system

using finger print as the topic of this research is a biometric voting system.

Biometrics is the term given to the use of biological traits or behavioral

characteristics to identify an individual. The traits may be fingerprints, hand

geometry, facial geometry, retina patterns, voice recognition, and handwriting

recognition. Since the beginning of civilization, recognizing the identity of fellow

human beings has been a central thread in the fabric of society. Until the 20th

century, such personal recognition was manually carried out in person among

small communities of friends and acquaintances based on visual appearances such


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as face, hairstyle, body type, gait, and voice. With advances in communication

technology and transportation, we have become interconnected to form a much

larger global community. Often, business deals are no longer done in person with a

handshake or signature on paper. Conducting business from remote locations has

become the norm. As a result, it has become necessary to carry out reliable

personal recognition often remotely and through automated means. Surrogate

representations of identity such as passwords (prevalent for electronic access

control) and tokens (prevalent for physical access control) provide a lower level of

authentication security that does not strongly link the authorized user with their

digital identity. Because biometric identifiers cannot be shared or misplaced, and

they intrinsically represent the individuals bodily identity, biometrics is quickly

becoming an essential component of effective identification solutions. Recognition

of a person by their body, linking that body to an externally established identity,

forms a powerful authentication tool. Biometrics usage is reducing fraud, and

enhancing user convenience. Among the different biometrics, fingerprints have the

right balance of qualities including distinctiveness, persistence, accuracy,

throughput, size and cost of readers, maturity of technology and convenience of

use, making it the dominant biometric technology in commercial applications.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

This project work was inspired by the immense instability in Nigeria politics

caused by rigging of elections and snatching of ballot boxes. Presently ballot

voting and electronic voting systems are widely used voting methods in the world

but these systems are not accurate as they are not used to get genuine result.

1.3 Objective of the Study

This Project work is aimed at achieving the following.

1. Creating robust software that will remove rigging in voting system in

Nigeria.


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2. Create a user friendly interface where finger print of voters will be taken

during voters registration and be used for authentication during votes.

3. Creating an application that will enhance the speed of processing and

accessing vote information.

1.4 Significance of the Study

This software will provide authenticated voting system that can be used to reduce

rigging in election. It can also be used for the purpose of reliable automatic

personal recognition.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The work covers voters registration process and voting procedures.

1.6 Limitation of the Study

There are constraints to this research work. Some of these constraints include;

Limited resources for the research work;

Frequent power failure;

Financial constraints.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Democracy: The word democracy is from two Greek words demons and kratein.

Demons refer to the people, the masses while Kratein means to rule

respectively. Demokratia therefore means rule by the people. Democracy is a

government in which all adult citizens share through their elected representatives.

Electoral System: Electoral system is a scheme of ideas or principles by which

election is organized at which somebody is chosen by vote for something,

especially a public office.

A ballot box: A ballot box is a temporarily sealed container, usually square box

though sometimes a tamper resistant bag, with a narrow slot in the top sufficient to


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accept a ballot paper in an election but which prevents anyone from accessing the

votes cast until the close of the voting period.

A ballot: A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election, and may be a ticket,

a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting.

Election: An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population

chooses an individual to hold public office.

Suffrage: It means excluding some group of people from voting

Fingerprints: fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges

of human fingers. They are one of many forms of biometrics used to identify

individuals and verify their identity

Fingerprint recognition: Fingerprint recognition or fingerprint authentication

refers to the automated method of verifying a match between two human

fingerprints.

Fingerprint sensor: A fingerprint sensor is an electronic device used to capture a

digital image of the fingerprint pattern.

chapter one2003 of voting system

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