TELKOMNIKA, Vol.16, No.5, October 2018, pp.

2155~2164
ISSN: 1693-6930, accredited First Grade by Kemenristekdikti, Decree No: 21/E/KPT/2018
DOI: 10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v16i5.9739  2155

Implementation of E-voting System for Student Union

Government Elections

Aderibigbe I. Adekitan*, Victor O. Matthews, Temitope M. John, Stanley Uzairue

Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria
*Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
Several records of violence during student body elections in higher institutions of learning can be
found dating back to the 1988 Abu crisis. The causal factors are multifaceted, involving both internal
factors within the institution and external factors, and interest parties like main stream politicians. Suspicion
of the possibility of rigging during a planned election can trigger pre-election violence, while alleged rigging
during the election or the vote counting process is the major cause of election unrest during student
government elections. The voting process is typically manual, and it is done through the use of ballot
boxes and papers. This is error prone, inefficient and susceptible to rigging. Preventing mistrust-induced
election violence requires the deployment of a trustworthy alternative to the paper ballot system. In this
study, an electronic voting system is developed using Visual Basic and Microsoft Access Database. The
application performs voter authentication by verifying a pre-issued pin which is unique for each voter. The
system is accurate and engages the participation and login of agents who are representatives of the
candidates’ contesting for various offices thereby building trust in the process.

Keywords: electronic voting application, election security, student politics and violence, student union
government, university voting system

Copyright © 2018 Universitas Ahmad Dahlan. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Student Union Government (SUG) is a central part of higher institution of learning,
serving as an interface between the students and the management in the administration of the
university. The SUG serves as a platform for the student community to express their views,
communicate their desires and concerns to the university management, and also pursue
common goals on a unitary platform [1]. The SUG prevents oppression of the student
community by the management of the institution, and also articulates their views in cases of
corruption and mismanagement of resources by the institution‟s management. The unified
power of the university student body expressed through the SUG is often a major source of
concern for most universities due to the SUG‟s power to drive the university to a standstill via
protests, violence, media outcry and so forth. Hence, there is always an effort by the
management of the institution to keep their activities under control, and to ensure that the SUG
leadership is composed of the right individuals with the right visions to drive for success and
greatness peaceably.
Student union politics and election into the SUG is quite partisan and this could be
further intensified by various vested external interests. SUG politics is a microcosm of the
national politics, and more often than not, the SUG is a tool for politicians to rally voters during
national elections. This implies that a lot of funding and resources for campaign and spread of
propaganda is made available to the SUG by some members of the university management,
politicians and political parties [2], thereby creating political groups within the SUG, as student
arm of many political parties [3]. This makes SUG electoral offices very juicy and attractive due
to the benefits and opportunities that exist both in the present and after graduation, as a result
of the links established with politicians and prominent individuals in the society, while in the
institution through the SUG platform.
Student politics, campaign and voting can be very tense and divided along ethnic and
religious lines, just like the national politics [2,4,5]. Several cases of SUG election violence has
been recorded across the globe with a number of cases in Africa and Asia. This is often due to
various forms of election malpractices and rigging [2]. In Nigeria, on March 10, 2015 student

Received May 1, 2018; Revised August 14, 2018; Accepted September 7, 2018
2156  ISSN: 1693-6930

union election at the Yaba College of Technology turned violent after invasion by thugs during
the election result counting process. Sporadic shots were fired and students had to flee the
collation centre for their safety [6]. The post-election massacre of students at the Federal
Polytechnic, Mubi [7] is another critical case of student election violence resulting in the loss of
lives, leaving several others severely injured in its wake. Also, on the 24th of May, 2015, student
union election went awry at the College of Education, Kangere, the resulting violence spilled
from the institution to neighbouring communities with several innocent people injured as a result
[8]. Meddling of external authorities in university student elections is not uncommon [9], this is
usually geared at ensuring the victory of an anointed candidate, and such can easily trigger
student revolt and violence; an example of this is the June 2016 protest and violence at the
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria [10].
In India, on October 24, 2008 post-election violence erupted at Buxi Jagabandhu
Bidyadhar College after student demanded for a vote recount due to alleged error [11]. A similar
scenario played out at Utkal University on Sep 17, 2017 when an alleged attempt was made to
scatter the already scheduled election by rival groups [12]. On September 28, 2015 at
Allahabad University, series of pre-election violence erupted at the university. In 2017,
nd
The setting of age limit for SUG voters by the 42 Senate of Tribhuvan University,
Nepal triggered a wave of violence and protests [13], resulting in injuries and property
destruction [13]. Students take different forms to express their displeasure with SUG election
process and results, this could be through demonstrations, property destruction, arson and
other forms of violence. Although, requirements for preventing SUG election violence are
multifaceted, a major solution can be achieved by ensuring a smooth and malpractice free
registration, voting and counting of election results. This can be deployed by designing and
implementing an offline electronic voting system for the SUG elections as presented in this
research work.

2. Electronic Voting System

Identified societal challenges are sometimes resolved by developing goal specific
software applications to manage the issues. Voting is core to democratic processes and the
mode of voting must be credible and trusted by all stakeholders [14]. An electronic voting
system is a paperless form of voting system designed to prevent errors, manipulation, fraud and
also ensure process integrity [15]. A good voting system must be tamper proof and also assure
the anonymity of the voters for their protection and safety [16,17]. According to [18], one of the
ways of securing e-voting system is by deploying them offline i.e. off the internet. This
eliminates external risks and prevents hackers from accessing and manipulating the system. E-
voting system provides a platform for fair voting process without undue pressure which
empowers the voters to determine their leadership.
Electronic voting entails the use of computers or smart electronic devices for voting
processes which eliminates the use of paper voting systems. Some e-voting systems are
designed to produce paper trail of the voting process as a means of double checking and
confirming manually the results of the electronic system. E-voting systems can be on or off the
internet, internet based system creates opportunities for remote voting centres which increases
accessibility and reduces queues at voting centres but it may be susceptible to identity fraud,
hacking attacks and election result manipulation [19].

3. The University Voting System Developed

The Student Voting System (SVS) was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic in Visual
Studio 2010 environment. The database on which the VB 2010 application runs was deployed
using database programming with SQL Server and ADO.NET; a platform that provides a
disconnected architecture allowing the system to scale up [20]. A Microsoft Access Database
file is a relational database system that enables the linking of tables for improved database
performance [21].
In a voting system, voter identification and authentication is very vital [22,23], this can
be achieved by using a smart card [24], an online signature [25], a unique login details, pin and
so forth. In the SVS developed, student data such as their complete names, matriculation
number, Faculty, Department, academic level, emails and telephone numbers are obtained

TELKOMNIKA Vol. 16, No. 5, October 2018: 2155-2164

TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930  2157

directly from the university MIS/ICT Centre. Using the names and the matric number of each
student a unique access pin is generated for each student. The pin is generated and sent via
mails and SMS to the students on the day of the election to prevent any form of manipulation
and fraud. The SVS has three classes of users and access rights as detailed in Figure 1.
a. Administrators with full access to the database for adding voters and creating profiles for
other SVS users as shown in Figure 9. The administrators login using the form shown in
Figure 3 and manages the database as shown in Figure 8. The form for changing admin
password is shown in Figure 5.
b. Agents-these are witnesses and appointed representatives of the contestants for the
various SUG offices.
c. Voters-these are students of the institution that has been registered and approved to
participate in the election.
The application is installed on computers at the voting centre with adequate
arrangement to ensure secret ballot. Prior to the commencement of voting, the agents will login
to confirm that the voting result for all the candidates is zero. Registered student voters will fill
their details into the voter‟s login page and also enter the unique pin sent to them, and then click
login. The system authenticates the data entered in Figure 2, and if confirm accurate, a
message box is displayed showing the name and level of the student. The student must confirm
his or her identity by clicking yes, in order to access the SUG candidates form for voting. If
authentication fails the user is denied access and a warning message is displayed. To vote, the
voter will select the corresponding checkbox for their preferred candidate and click NEXT to
move to forms for candidates contesting for other positions as shown in Figure 7. On clicking
NEXT, on the last candidates form, a VOTE confirmation dialog box is displayed, requesting the
voter to confirm the desire to vote for the selected candidates. When the voter clicks VOTE, the
database is updated for the selected candidates, and the application returns to the login page.
The details of the voter, the pin used to vote and the time of voting is updated in a database
table called “youhavevoted” This is to allow the system to check those who have voted so as to
prevent double voting. The voting process is summarized in Figure 6.

Start the Voting

Application

Admin Login Agent Login Voter Login

Create User Select preferred

Voters Database Change After ALL the
Profiles (Admin/ candidate for
Management password Agents logs in
Agent) each post

Change Password View Election View Election

VOTE
Result Result

Figure 1. The access right of each class of SVS platform users

Implementation of E-voting System for Student.... (Aderibigbe I. Adekitan)

2158  ISSN: 1693-6930

Figure 2. Voter‟s login form

Figure 3. Admin login form

Figure 4. Agent‟s login form

TELKOMNIKA Vol. 16, No. 5, October 2018: 2155-2164

TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930  2159

Figure 5. Password change form

Start

Do you want to Click Menu

Yes No Stop
Login? then Exit
Enter voter's
details and
unique access
pin

Click Login

Voter selects the

Verify if the user preferred
Grant access to
exists and the Pin is Yes candidate for the Click Next
Voting interface
valid? first Post using
checkbox

No
Click Next to Voter selects the
Deny Voting proceed or Back to preferred
Access and give a edit selected candidate for
notification candidates other Posts
message

No
A
Is voter ready to
vote selected
candidates

Yes

Click VOTE

Figure 6. A flow chart of the voting process

Implementation of E-voting System for Student.... (Aderibigbe I. Adekitan)

2160  ISSN: 1693-6930

Figure 7. Candidates for the Vice President‟s Office

Figure 8. The Admin database management interface

TELKOMNIKA Vol. 16, No. 5, October 2018: 2155-2164

TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930  2161

The system is programmed such that at the end of the voting exercise, each agent must
login to the system one after the other and the view result button will remain inactive until ALL
the agents have logged in. This is a confirmation of agents consent that the voting process is
completed and all the agents are simultaneously present to view the result at the same time.
This is shown in Figure 4 and Figure 10. The database structure is shown in Figure 11.

Figure 9. Form for creating Admin and Agent User Profile

Figure 10. Election Result for two SUG posts

Implementation of E-voting System for Student.... (Aderibigbe I. Adekitan)

2162  ISSN: 1693-6930

Figure 11. The database structure using three departments

4. The benefits of the SVS

The electronic SVS prevents fraud and election rigging by smuggling ballot paper into
ballot boxes for paper based systems. It also prevents online hacking via the internet because it
is deployed offline. The platform ensures the participation of all stakeholders which help to build
trust and confidence in the SVS and the voting process. The paper backed, electronic voting
system developed by [26] for the Austrian Federation of Students use a smart card which
digitally identifies the voter, but in this study, Voter‟s authentication is via a unique access pin
sent to the voters on the day of the election through SMS. The pin is free and does not require
the cost of a unique smart card. The voting system implemented by the graduate student of the
University of Ottawa requires electronic voter verification by a polling staff, while the actual
voting is performed using a coded paper based ballot and clipboard system together with an
optical scan, vote counting system [27], but in this study, the electronic SVS allows the user to
personally login to the voting system, and the voting itself is done completely electronically.
In the voting system deployed by [27], user voting combinations is protected by shuffling
the voting data, while for the SVS developed in this study, the voting system does not keep the
record of the set of candidates voted for by any voter; it is programmed to only update the count
for each candidate voted for and then discard the data, thereby providing anonymity [28] and
protection for the voters.

5. Conclusion
Student body elections in higher institutions of learning have led to unrest and violence
at various instances due to mistrust in the election process. An electronic voting system has

TELKOMNIKA Vol. 16, No. 5, October 2018: 2155-2164

TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930  2163

been developed in this study for use in institutions for conducting Student Government
Elections. The SVS eliminate the challenges of the paper based ballot system, and in particular,
rigging during the voting and vote count process. The SVS is an offline system eliminating the
opportunity for attack by hackers through the internet. The voting process engages all
concerned stakeholders and interest groups via their representatives, thereby building trust in
the voting process. The integrity and accuracy of the voting system eliminate the biases and
doubts that typically accompanies Student Government elections which has resulted in violence
in several academic institutions leading to injuries, loss of lives, destruction of properties and
disruption to the core academic activities and calendar. The SVS is easy to use, efficient,
accurate, secured, provides anonymity for voters, and it authenticates voters making it the
preferred voting platform during SUG elections.

Acknowledgement
The Authors appreciate Covenant University Centre for Research, Innovation and
Discovery for supporting the publication of this research.

References
[1] ZE Peter, ST Ebimobowei. Leadership and student unionism, challenges and solutions in the
Nigerian tertiary education system (colleges of education, polytechnics and universities). European
Scientific Journal (ESJ). 2015; 11.
[2] RD Uche, EO Odey. Leadership conflicts among students on Nigerian university campuses: the
experience of the University of Calabar, Calabar-Nigeria. British Journal of Education. 2017; 5: 1-8.
[3] S Munshi. Student Politics: A Game-Theoretic Exploration. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development
Research, Mumbai. 2014.
[4] OV Ojo. Turbulent election history: An appraisal of precipitating factors in Nigeria. International
Journal of Politics and Good Governance. 2014; 5: 1-18.
[5] JO Fatile, KD Adejuwon. Conflict and conflict management in tertiary institutions: The case of
Nigerian universities. European journal of humanities and social sciences. 2011; 7.
[6] S Reporters. Thugs, Violence Disrupt Student Exco Elections at YabaTech. 2015. Available:
http://saharareporters.com/2015/03/10/thugs-violence-disrupt-student-exco-elections-yabatech
[7] S Reporters. Mubi Student Massacre: Killers Called Out Students‟ Names Before Shooting Them,
Say Police. 2012. Available: http://saharareporters.com/2012/10/02/mubi-student-massacre-killers-
called-out-students%E2%80%99-names-shooting-them-say-police
[8] I Ibrahim. Eight injured, 32 arrested as students‟ union election goes violent. Premium Times, ed.
2017.
[9] S Reporters. The „audacity of madness‟ in the university of Calabar student union elections. 2009.
Available: http://saharareporters.com/2009/11/27/%E2%80%98audacity-madness%E2%80%99-
university-calabar-student-union-elections
[10] O Alao. Violence mars LAUTECH Students‟ Union election. The Nation, ed. 2016.
[11] T Hindu. Violence mars student union polls. 2008. Available: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-
paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/Violence-mars-student-union-polls/article15328282.ece
[12] H Pradhan. Pre-poll violence: Section 144 clamped on Utkal University campus. The Times of India
city, ed. 2017.
[13] N Monitor. Contestation and Violence Related to Free Student Union Election. 2017. Available:
https://www.nepalmonitor.org/blog/2017/04/07/contestation-and-violence-related-to-free-student-
union-election/
[14] JP Nogueira, F de Sá-Soares. Trust in e-Voting Systems: A Case Study. Knowledge and
Technologies in Innovative Information Systems. 2012: 51.
[15] G Neumann. Special Issue: The problems and potentials of voting systems. Communications of the
ACM. 2004; 47.
[16] T Kohno, A Stubblefield, AD Rubin, DS Wallach. Analysis of an electronic voting system. Security
and Privacy, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE Symposium on. 2004: 27-40.
[17] R Suwandi, SM Nasution, F Azmi. Secure E-voting system by utilizing homomorphic properties of the
encryption algorithm. Telkomnika (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control). 2018; 16:
862-867.
[18] Brennan-Centre-for-Justice. Voting System Security and Reliability Risks. New York University
School of Law. 2016.
[19] T Habibu, K Sharif, S Nicholas. Design and Implementation of Electronic Voting System. International
Journal of Computer & organization Trends (IJCOT). 2017; 7: 1-6.
[20] T Willis, B Newsome. Beginning Visual Basic 2010. Wrox. 2010.

Implementation of E-voting System for Student.... (Aderibigbe I. Adekitan)

2164  ISSN: 1693-6930

[21] O Oni, O Oshin, O Oni, F Idachaba. Web-based Portal for Vehicle Licensing Management.
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering London, U.K. 2015.
[22] SN John, CK Ayo, C Ndujuiba, CE Okereke. Design and Implemenation of a Unified e-ID Card for
Secure e-Voting System (MUSES). International Journal of Computer and Information Technology.
2013; 2.
[23] I Kabandana, ANN Kumar. FPF: Fraud Proof Framework for Electronic Voting System. 2016; 6.
[24] N Ya‟acob, AM Azize, AL Yusof, SS Sarnin, NF Naim, SN Rohaizad. Web-based boarding school
monitoring system. Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. 2018; 11:
215-223.
[25] SA Daramola, MA Adefuminiyi, TM John. Online Signature for Attendance Verification System using
Levenberg-Marquardt Neural Network. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering, London,
U.K. 2016.
[26] R Krimmer, A Ehringfeld, M Traxl. The Use of E-Voting in the Austrian Federation of Students
Elections 2009. Electronic voting. 2010; 167: 33-44.
[27] A Essex, J Clark, R Carback, S Popoveniuc. Punchscan in practice: An E2E election case study.
Proceedings of Workshop on Trustworthy Elections. 2007.
[28] M Lubis, M Kartiwi, S Zulhuda. Privacy and personal data protection in electronic voting: Factors and
measures. Telkomnika (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control). 2017; 15: 512-521.

TELKOMNIKA Vol. 16, No. 5, October 2018: 2155-2164