ANU SRC adopts electronic voting to elect leadership

Koforidua, April 17, GNA - The Students Representative Council (SRC) of the All Nations University College (ANUC) in Koforidua, had adopted a digital voting system, designed by two computer students to elect its 2006/7 leadership.

Mr Matthew Boateng and Mr Joshua Bonsu, third year students, used "Visual basic" and "Access", to design and develop the package for the electronic voting system.

The system, described as "foolproof" and "tamper proof" by the designers, involved the allocation of a password to each voting student to click on the images of the candidates of their choice, running for the various SRC positions and the data recorded and calculated automatically.

They said the system was fast, less expensive, less involving and reduces the risk of double voting, since each voter has a unique code and password generated by the system.

The Eastern Regional Deputy Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Eric Mensah Bonsu, who supervised the elections, described it as a "resourceful innovation, which other organisations should adopt."

According to him, the system required no ballot papers and no long time counting process, as the computer recorded the process easily. Asked whether the system could be adopted for future national elections, Mr Mensah Bonsu said it would require that all voters be literates to be able to adopt the system, saying, "if this handicap is removed and the EC is resourced with the number of computers then it could be adopted."

The SRC Election Board Chairman, Mr Joseph Adza-Torgbor, who initiated the system for the designers, said out of the 810 student's population, only 425 could, however, cast their vote, while the others faced various "handicaps", such as evening tuition. According to him, some of the students had to use ballot papers to vote because their semester's list was not available and so their identity cards had to be used to establish their eligibility before allowed to vote. Mr Emmanuel Kwabena Yirenkyi was elected the SRC President with Mr Kelvin Forkuo as the secretary. Miss Constance Danso was also elected the SRC treasurer and Miss Rosina Budu Agyeiwaa, external affairs chairperson and Miss Cassandra Mufemor Aniklo, women's organiser.