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

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

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.

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

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.