With seven months to the 2023 general elections, Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has embraced the use of more technology in election management. Paul Agbo writes on the party’s use of technology in its electoral process.

As political parties brace for the 2023 general elections, a defining element in the entire process has been the deployment of technology, which was significant during party primaries.

Beyond the politics of how candidates emerged, the technical process of uploading the names of candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was unlike before.

In the past, this stage had been quite problematic and complicated for political parties and the electoral commission, resulting, most times, in frictions within political parties that field candidates in all 1,520 elective positions across the country.

Expectedly, fielding candidates for all positions in the general elections was a herculean task for the 18 political parties in the country.

The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was able to field candidates in all positions through the deployment technology.

In line with its tradition of not leaving any position vacant across the country, PDP under the national chairmanship, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, fielded candidates in the 1,520 positions available for contest as declared by the INEC.


Ayu had maintained that the party’s focus is to win the 2023 general elections transparently and that all Nigerians should be allowed to exercise their franchise.

As such, PDP fielded candidates in all elective positions in the country. These include two for President and Vice; 56 for governor and deputy; 109 for Senate; 360 for House of Representatives and 993 for State House of Assembly.

Finding reveals that PDP is the only party in the country to field candidates in all the vacant seats.

Not even the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) was able to field candidates in all positions. It was learnt that the ruling party was able to field candidates in about 1,507 positions for the
forthcoming general elections.

Findings revealed that PDP was able to field candidates in all available positions across the country because of the technology used by the organisation and mobilisation department.

This organisation department had constantly used technology to enhance its operations from the days of the former National Organising Secretary (NOS), Col. Austin Akobundu (rtd) where Accreditation Tags were scanned using a QR Code for authentication.

Under the leadership of another retired military man, Hon. Capt. Umar Bature, PDP’s Organisation Unit deepened the use of technology to ensure transparency in party primaries.

Building on the successes of the former NOS, Bature created an Electronic Nomination Forms Application (Electronic Nomination Form Release System) which has made the internal process of leadership recruitment seamless and transparent in the party.

Since the introduction of the system in October 2021, some appreciable and noticeable changes have been recorded, especially with the ease of procedures and high value outcomes in the last one year.

Under Bature’s watch, the party was able to conduct a credible and transparent presidential primary election. Primary elections at the states and National Assembly levels have been largely free and fair across the country.

However, with the 2023 general election in sight, the task isn’t going to be easy, a political pundit, Micheal Obiechina said.

“It is a good thing that technology is now the critical element in the electoral process even for parties, and it is nice that some parties, especially PDP, have keyed into it. We hope that the other stakeholders will continue to uphold the process,” he said.

Recently, INEC commenced the training of political party officials on the use of the redesigned INEC’s Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) in preparation for the 2023 general election.

The ICNP, it was gathered, is one of the technological innovations introduced by the commission in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to reduce physical interactions and automate its processes.

Chairperson of the Legal Services, Clearance and Complaints Committee (LSC&CC), Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, told participant at the training in Abuja that “the ICNP has been in use since the 2020 Edo and Ondo State governorship elections.

She said that the new provisions in the Electoral Act (2022), which made provision for several technological innovations, have additionally given the commission a general discretion to apply technology as it sees fit.

The national commissioner disclosed that the portal was recently redesigned to accommodate the greater demands of a wider, general election nomination process.

She said, “This training is of utmost importance to political parties as it will enlighten them on the guidelines for nomination of candidates and the new procedure of the ICNP bearing in mind that political parties will be submitting forms on the portal in respect of candidates they intend to sponsor for the various offices in One Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-Nine (1,499) constituencies in Nigeria.”

INEC has been commended for deploying technology in the preparation for the 2023 elections. The election management body has been applauded for constantly enhancing the integrity of the electoral process while also ensuring ease for voters and other stakeholders in the electoral system. The expectation is that most political parties would key into more use of technology.

However, the PDP, last week, charged the electoral umpire to replicate ICNP success in 2023 general elections.

In a press statement on Friday, the national publicity secretary of PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, said INEC should replicate the success recorded in the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal (ICNP) technology to
ensure transparent, fast, credible polling and transmission of results in the 2023 general elections.

The statement read: “The PDP commends the ICNP technology which allows political parties to use specified and dedicated Access Codes issued by the commission to log in and electronically upload the names and particulars of their candidates onto the INEC Web Portal in a manner that guarantees promptness, safety of materials as well as the integrity and transparency of the submission process.

“The PDP notes the effort by INEC to train Mobilisation staffs of political parties for seven days; an initiative that played key role in the success of the ICNP process. The party urges INEC to organise more capacity building trainings for its officials ahead of the 2023 general election.

“Our Party believes that the success of the ICNP is a further pointer that technology can be effectively deployed to enhance the credibility of sensitive electoral processes such as rapid uploading, transmission, collation and final declaration of election results at all levels.

“The PDP, a critical stakeholder in the Nigerian Democratic System, applauds the deployment of technology in the electronic transmission of results in the Osun State Governorship election but urges the
Commission to expand its capacity so as to withstand the expected pressure in the large-scale transmission of results from across the country in the 2023 general elections.

“The PDP also charges INEC to ensure the security of its electronic system to prevent infiltrations and manipulations especially in the 2023 general elections.

“INEC must know that the process of the 2023 general elections is crucial to the people and Nigerians expect nothing short of free, fair, transparent and credible elections that will reflect only their expressed Will and aspiration to rescue our nation from the current misrule,” he said.

It was gathered that INEC had acknowledged the PDP Organisation Department as the most organised and efficient of all the 18 political parties in the country with regards to its promptness, adherence to the rules and guidelines and good quality documentation.

However, as the world gravitate fully into the use of technology in all facets of human endeavour; the use of technology in party management has made internal operations easier and cheaper with
efficiency.

For PDP supporters like Obiechina, their party has taken the lead in that sector which has resulted in transparency in the leadership recruitment process as witnessed in recent times.

But for others like Biodun Ajibade, a political analyst, “The task is for the party to continue in this direction.”

No doubt, the continued deployment of technology in Nigeria’s electoral process is a panacea to electoral fraud, rigging and court cases resulting from faulty party primaries and the general elections.