Online voting is a very important process in the Nigerian political system. It is one of the means and most effective method of ensuring a legitimate government through popular participation. To enthrone sound democracy and stability in political system of the Enugu state a system of rig-free online voting has to be put in place. The system would among others discourage double voting, forgery or hoarding of electoral materials massive transfer of ballot papers destruction of ballot boxes, inflation of electron figures and unnecessary delay pronouncement of election result. This could be achieved by an electronic voting system to remove the difficult administrative tasks of the electoral body which regulated the conduct of election in Enugu state. This basically forms the goal set to achieve in this study. Therefore this project aims at alleviating the incidence of rigging and introduction of an organized procedure of voting which is the banner of socio-economic and political progress in Enugu state.

ORGANIZATION OF WORK

This work is organized in five chapters. Chapter one, discussed among other things, introduction, states of the problems, purpose of study, aims and objectives as well as the scope of the study. Also discussed under this chapter are limitations of the study and finally the assumptions made.

Chapter two did a review of related literature, and this chapter was not substituted.

Chapter three gave account of the description and analysis of the existing system, the fact-finding method used the organization structure. Also the chapter discussed the objective of the existing system, input process and output analysis, information flow diagrams, problems of the existing system and finally the justification of the new system.

Chapter four gave an account of the design of the new system requirement.

Chapter five was based on the implementation, program design, pseudo code, program flowchart, documentation, recommendation, conclusion and definition of terms used.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page i

Certification ii

Dedication iii

Acknowledgement iv

Abstract v

Organization of work vi

Table of contents vii

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 State of the problem 3

1.3 Purpose of the study 4

1.4 Significance of study 5

1.5 Aims and objectives of study 5

1.6 Scope of study 6

1.7 Limitation of study 7

1.8 Assumptions 7

1.9 Definitions of terms. 7

CHAPTER TWO

Review of related literature 10

CHAPTER THREE

Description and analysis of the existing system 17

3.1 General description of the existing system 17

3.2 Fact finding methods used 19

3.3 Objective of the existing system 21

3.4 Organizational structure 22

3.5 Input process 22

3.6 Output analysis 23

3.7 Process analysis 23

3.8 Information flow diagram 25

3.9 Problems of the existing system 26

3.10 Justification of the new system 27

CHAPTER FOUR

4.1 Design of the new system 28

4.2 The output specification and design 29

4.3 Input specification and design 31

4.4 File design 33

4.5 Procedure chart/ design 35

4.6 System flow chart 36

4.8 system requirement 36

CHAPTER FIVE

Implementation of the system 38

5.1 Program design 39

6.1 System documentation 46

6.2 Program documentation 46

6.3 User documentation 47

CHAPTER SEVEN

Recommendation and conclusion 48

7.1 Summary 48

7.2 Conclusion 48

7.3 Recommendation 50

References

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The advancement made in technology over the past few years is astounding. The computer alone has progressed at a remarkable pace, and updates are continually occurring. Along with the progress of the computer comes the transformation of the virtual world. The internet is a fairly recent concept that has profoundly affected our daily lives. As with anything new the internet possesses various mysteries. Research is being conducted to determine the possibilities of an electronic voting. Online voting opens the door to all sorts of possibilities for our state voting future.

Therefore, voting is a means of means of selecting or choosing leaders, it does not apply only to local government, states and federal government of Nigeria but also in different institutions and social organization. The conduct of elections in democratic society is very important not only because through it a change of government is effected but also because voting is the main form of political participation for most people. For democracy to be sound, it should be anchored on election free from fraud.

Over the years, the voting operation has been put under a manual system of operation which mostly results to inaccuracy and ineffective election. It is gradually being realized that much faster accurate, effective and efficient system is needed to be adopted.

Here online is to be instituted to handle voting.

The electronic voting system ensures that each intended voter is checked whether he/she is registered or not, if he/she is not registered, the system refuses him voting. Also it checks whether he/she has voted for the particular election. This is electronic voting system prevents a situation where a particular candidate seizes the voters cards and uses them to vote for himself. Hence the rigging associated with the manual voting systems has been completely handled. The system also takes care of result calculation of each candidate in particular election and the percentage scored in that election. The eliminates rigging associated with the calculation and counting of votes.

A means of showing the various outputs is adopted by the system the output can either be displayed on the screen or a hard copy of it can be produced depending on the choice of the user. This prevents intentional and unintentional typographical errors in showing the results of the elections.

With an online voting, voters can be cast only once it will also afford people who are sick and unable to go to polling stations to cast their vote to do so. It should be noted however that online voting will not replace the existing ballot forms, but is offered as a supplementary way of casting a ballot.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The inefficiency of voting process in Enugu has resulted in a lot of problems.

These problems have continued to obstruct the peace of democracy in Enugu because the choice of a capable candidate is not encouraged by the current system.

These problems include

1 High rigging during election process

2 A single voters casting his vote multiple times

3 Inefficient and inaccurate counting of voters by officers concerned.

4 Long queues observed at polling stations

5 Illegible voters casting their vote

6 Loss of votes due to either wrong voting of the use case of any accident occurring during transportation of the statement of result and other electoral materials to the collection centers.

1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY

The purpose of this study is to design and implement an online voting system. The study will activate democracy and ensure that the popular choice emerges victories in any local government election conducted in Enugu state.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

1 Electronic voting provides security during election

2. It discourages double voting

3. It introduces a system rig-free voting

4. Electronic voting prevents the unnecessary delay pronouncement of election result.

1.5 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The main aim of this project work is to design online voting system which among others is able to achieve the following targets;

i. Each voter will be able to vote only once.

ii. Nobody will have access to the votes before the official opening of the electronic ballot box.

iii. The vote cast cannot be intercepted, modified or diverted.

iv. The online site will resist any attack.

v. Only registered voters will have access to the application

vi. Voters will be protected against any attempt of identified theft

vii. The secrecy of the vote will be guaranteed

viii. Rigging of the election will be controlled

ix. The system will not accept vote outside the voting period

x. It put to an end the indiscriminate alteration of election result by any officer of the electoral commission of Enugu state.

1.6 SCOPE OF STUDY

The study covers voting processes as it is done at the ward councillorship election and local government chairmanship elections. It also inculcates the voter’s personal records, candidate’s personal records and voting procedures.

1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Due to the fact of non-availability of the vital components required for the design and implementation of an online voting system, work shall be limited.

However, the immediate availability of components will help the researcher to achieve his objectives fully.

1.8 ASSUMPTIONS

It is assumed that the implementation of the new system will rapidly improve the economic and the socio-political lives of the people of enugu state. There will be no room for rigging and election malpractice.

1.9 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

Ballot Paper: Material with which voters used to cast their votes.

Ballot Box: A container in which voters drop their votes

Ballot: a vote recorded in an election

Collection Centre: A designated location where results are collected

Computer: An electronic device that stores data, processes data and produces an output as information.

Democracy: This is the government of the people for the people and by the people.

Election: The act of choosing by voting one of the candidates for a position.

ENSIEC: Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission

Home Page: The front door to a website. Normally contains links to other sites or page.

Html: Hyper Text Mark-up Language

Poll: The process of voting at an election