Nigerian lawmakers could not vote yesterday after problems with the new electronic voting platform in the House of Representatives that was installed by the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat).
The decision to install a new electronic voting system in the legislative chamber was a result of a breakdown in the system that was previously installed in the National Assembly.
NigComSat was contracted to supply a new platform in addition to electronic devices including iPads for the 360 lawmakers.
The challenges with the new system made it impossible for members of the house to vote on the report of house’s ad hoc committee on constitution review.
Announcing the postponement until today, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, said the postponement was necessary to enable the lawmakers to become familiarised with the new devices.
Tambuwal said: “We are aware that our citizens are anxiously waiting for us to do this voting today but from the challenges we have, we appeal to Nigerians to show understanding. We will do it tomorrow (today) because what is worth doing is worth doing well. I can assure you that we will do everything transparently.”
Ahmed Rufai, director general of NigComSat, said the software for the new platform was locally designed and encouraged the lawmakers to charge the iPads overnight so that they would last the entire voting period.
