Advancing Democratic Governance with AIoT-Enabled E-Voting: A Case Study of Covenant University's Departmental Associations in Alignment with SDG 16

Voting is a cornerstone of democratic societies, ensuring active participation and representation in decision-making processes. However, traditional voting systems face challenges like inefficiencies, security vulnerabilities, and a lack of transparency. In response, electronic voting has emerged as a promising solution. This project aims to create an intuitive and secure e-voting web application tailored for Covenant University’s Departmental Associations, fostering a fair and transparent democratic process, aligned with SDG 16: “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions”. By following the waterfall model for software development, effective planning, requirement gathering, design, implementation, testing, and deployment ensure a reliable and efficient e-voting platform. Skillfully built with Next.js and CSS for the front-end and Node.js for the back-end, the application enhances user accessibility. Adopting a schema-based approach with MongoDB streamlines database management. The application is securely deployed on a cloud hosting service, utilizing a virtual machine for seamless operation. With the addition of AIoT, the IoT-enabled I-voting system gains new capabilities and functionalities. Furthermore, AI algorithms can aid in voter authentication, fraud detection, and result prediction, making the voting system even more efficient and reliable. The results obtained, including a remarkable response time of 97%, throughput of 95%, F1score of 99%, precision of 99%, and recall of 99%, validate the creation of a secure, accessible, and efficient platform for conducting elections. The implementation of two-factor authentication and real-time results has further heightened transparency while minimizing the risk of fraud. In conclusion, this project empowers democratic governance within Covenant University’s Departmental Associations, supporting Sustainable Development Goals 16 (SDG 16) vision of strong institutions and just governance. By embracing AIoT-enabled electronic voting, we actively contribute to advancing peace and transparency in our democratic society. The integration of AIoT technology further enhances the system’s efficiency, security, and accuracy, making it a robust solution for conducting elections in line with SDG 16 principles.