Deployment of technology for electoral processes will discourage ‘sit-tight syndrome’ among African leaders, says former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday.

Speaking at the on-going First Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Monrovia, Mr Jonathan said “If full technology is deployed at all stages in the electoral process, elections will be free and fair and completely eliminate the manipulation and rigging of results.”

“If technology is deployed, African presidents who refuse to relinquish power even when they have lost an election will find it difficult to manipulate the process,” the ex-Nigerian leader reckons. “This is more so because it will be the prerogative of the people to choose to vote them out or allow them to continue in power.’’

Mr Jonathan further stated that the brigandage that attends African elections would also be eschewed with technology because “politicians will no longer have the opportunity to engage thugs and criminals to stuff ballot boxes” and cause mayhem and disrupt the electoral process.

He advised ECOWAS to ensure the use of technology fully in electoral processes to conduct free and fair elections in member states.

The Communications Division of the Parliament quoted Jonathan as saying that citizens of the sub region often lost confidence in their leaders who they believed to have manipulated the electoral system.

He also blamed the political class for the upheavals and current challenges bedevilling the sub-region.

Mr Jonathan charged ECOWAS leaders to strive to meet up with the primary responsibility of setting up the sub-regional body for economic integration and development.

(NAN)