Using Web Service for Generating Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for Nigerian Citizens

A permanent voter card (PVC) is an identification card that empowers an eligible voter to participate in voting during general elections. In Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) embarks on a continuous voter Registration (CVR) exercise on daily basis in order to ensure that every eligible voter in the country is registered and issued with PVC. This method is however too costly and time consuming to embark on. The federal government of Nigeria spends billions of naira for the provision of resources and man-power needed for its effective implementation, and this project has been on-going since April 2017, and would span till few months before the next general elections in 2019. Again, the system is prone to falsification of ages and/or peoples identities due to the manual method of authenticating birth certificates and other similar documents being presented by the masses at registration centres to enable their Biodata to be captured for the issuance of their PVCs. This work therefore shows how the use of web service can drastically cut-down government expenditure on voter card registration and production of PVCs as well as providing a good beginning towards credible elections by automatically authenticating and determining eligible voters that are devoid of any age falsification or personal identity.