Law on data sovereignty will help lawyers to file and substantiate their cases that will emanate from electronic voting in Nigeria’s future elections. The software and its country of origin are clearly stated in the law of data sovereignty. Law on data sovereignty will ensure the privacy with respect to voter information. The Law would give voters basic rights regarding their personal data: right of access, right of notice, right of deletion, right to prohibit transfer, and the right to prohibit targeting. The Law will review the potential for abuse of Internet-based technology in the election context, and made recommendations on steps that should be taken by Election Administrators, voters, and those involved in Election Protection efforts.

The main targets of hacking attacks against election-related technology include voter … leaking of personal data when online voter registers are compromised. … legally considered an ‘internationally wrongful act’ and a breach of sovereignty.

Nigeria does not generate data but only host foreign data. Nigeria relies on foreign laws to host data that is generated in another country. How will INEC conducts electronic voting in 2021 Anambra governorship election using law on data sovereignty of another country? Nigeria has not enacted a law on data sovereignty that INEC can use to conduct 2021 Anambra governorship election. The amendment of Nigeria’s electoral law is not enough to conduct electronic voting in Nigeria. Nigeria needs law on data sovereignty to enable INEC to conduct electronic voting in 2023 general elections. Nigeria needs law on data sovereignty for our election tribunals; court of appeal … data sovereignty policy framework is a sine qua non for electronic voting, and data management. We need law on data sovereignty as electronic voting has become imperative in Nigeria before 2023 general elections. It will be difficult for political parties to approach election tribunals without the enactment of law on data sovereignty in Nigeria. Political parties cannot approach tribunals using another country law on data sovereignty.

Law on data sovereignty includes the key areas of ICT incursion which include: … Voter Verification and Authentication;; Electronic Voting;; Vote Tallying and Transmission … Personal data of voter registers and voter lists can be used only for purposes of … of a national authority to reflect sovereignty and avoid allegations of international interference.

Law on Data Sovereignty will provide an alternative for a machine that will breakdown on the day of election. Law on data sovereignty will protect Nigerian voters from hackers from Iran, Russia, China and others. Law on data sovereignty will ensure that all the 36 states in Nigeria will not use the same software for electronic voting. Law on data sovereignty will ensure that facial recognition technology will prove the final votes of any election in Nigeria. Law on data sovereignty will allow election tribunals, court of Appeal and supreme courts to give fair judgment on electoral disputes concerning electronic voting.

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu says the commission will introduce electronic voting in 2021 Anambra governorship election. Data sovereignty seems to be something very important in the introduction of electronic voting in 2021 Anambra governorship election, given the popularity of the topic these days. True. But it also sounds like a technical issue, which concerns only specialists. Digital sovereignty, and the fight for it, touch everyone, even those who do not have a mobile phone or have never used an online service. Yakubu made this known in an interview with journalists on the sideline of the 2021 budget defence at the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters recently in Abuja. “It is difficult to give you an idea of cost or when the process would be concluded, but we are determined that we are going to deploy electronic voting machines, electronic balloting machines very soon in our elections. “Possibly beginning with the Anambra governorship election next year,” he said.

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The success and failure of electronic voting implementation in Nigeria depend on the law on data sovereignty in Nigeria. In common law, the recognition of privacy right has been evolved … process in the run-up to the revelation of personal information, users often … issues is not limited on the security sides, Sloan and Warner. And the fear is that the app can collect personal data, including sensitive … The fight for digital sovereignty is an epochal struggle not only of all against … what is legal or not, incentives and disincentives, kinds and levels of taxation .

July 16, 2020:The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) concluded that the US do not offer sufficient guarantees about the surveillance and the security of personal data, and therefore invalidated the EU-US Data Protection Shield, the agreement that regulates the transfer of the data of European users to processors in the US for commercial purposes

July 20, 2020: Huawei is a leading Chinese company in the production of 5G networks and systems. If the EU will ban the use of its technology for security reasons, following in this the US and Great Britain, then China threatened that it may retaliate against two European companies, Nokia and Ericsson (Mukherjee 2020).

These are just a handful of examples, during some ordinary weeks in the life of the digital revolution. They could be multiplied, the reader may have others in mind, and I shall refer to one more in a moment. But the common thread that unites them is getting clear: these are all episodes in the fight for digital sovereignty, that is, for the control of data, software (e.g. AI), standards and protocols (e.g. 5G, domain names), processes (e.g. cloud computing), hardware (e.g. mobile phones), services (e.g. social media, e-commerce), and infrastructures (e.g. cables, satellites, smart cities), in short, for the control of the digital. Let me clarify that by “control” I mean here the ability to influence something (e.g. its occurrence, creation, or destruction) and its dynamics (e.g. its behaviour, development, operations, interactions), including the ability to check and correct for any deviation from such influence. In this sense, control comes in degrees and above all can be both pooled and transferred. This is crucial since we shall see that the ultimate form of control is individual sovereignty, understood as self-ownership, especially over one’s own body, choices, and data.

The fight for digital sovereignty is an epochal struggle not only of all against all, but also of anyone allied with anyone, with variable alliances changing according to interests and opportunities. The most visible clash is between companies and states, and it is asymmetric. On the one hand, companies design, produce, sell, and maintain the digital.

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Inwalomhe Donald writes via [email protected]