FUTA Elects New SUG Executives Via Electronic Voting.
Election into various positions of the Students Union Government, SUG at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA took a new dimension with the adoption of electronic voting system.
The election which held at the Digital Resource Centre of the University on Thursday February 18, 2016 saw students vote candidates of their choice to various positions just by a click on the computer.
Their identity cards was verified through a purposely designed card reader after which the voter proceeded to the voting area where they interfaced with programmed computers to cast their votes. After each vote a monitor at the control Centre recorded it and instantaneous tally of contestants score was displayed.
The final result was ready as soon as the last student clicked on the computer to register his vote.
The Dean, Students’ Affairs o FUTA, Prof. Kayode Alese said what informed the adoption of electronic voting system was because the University needed to showcase its leadership position in the area of cutting edge technology and research.
According to him the process was very effective and an improvement on what other Institutions had done in the area of electronic voting.
Speaking further, he said registered students on the University data base were the only ones allowed to vote thus any unregistered student could not vote as the card reader would have screened them out.
The don said that FUTA alumni designed the software adopted for the election at no cost. The card readers were customized for the purpose of the election.
Corroborating Alese, the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Dr. Olutola Olubanjo commended the electoral process, saying the use of card readers really made the election process free and fair.
According to him, “It is a positive departure from the cumbersome old system of pen and paper. In fact it is innovative because no election in Nigeria has been done electronically. We commend management for this and suggest the adoption of the process for subsequent elections like Congregation and elections into offices in the Cooperative Societies”.
The result of the election as announced by the committee showed that Oladele Segun aka Solar emerged President with a vote of 1,970.
Other Officers are: Afolabi Christiana, Vice President; Olagunju Abayomi, General Secretary; Omidele Sodiq, Public Relations Officer; Olowomuwagun Seun, Director of Sports; Ajayi Richard, Welfare Director; Awoyinfa Opeoluwa, Financial Secretary; Owoseni Abdulhamid, Treasurer and Hamed Aisha, Director of Socials.
