Design of an E-Voting System for Student Union Elections at a University in Oyo State

Student union elections at universities in Oyo State are frequently marred by ballot manipulation, voter intimidation, and counting irregularities, undermining confidence in student governance. This study presents the design and prototype development of a secure electronic voting system for student union elections at a university in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Nigeria. The system was developed using Django (Python) with a PostgreSQL database, incorporating role-based access control for electoral commission officials, candidates, and registered voters. Security features include one-time voter token generation, TLS encryption, audit log maintenance, and voter anonymity through token-ballot decoupling. The voting interface supports mobile and desktop access, with 2FA via email OTP. System design was informed by focus group discussions with 35 student stakeholders. Security testing included SQL injection testing, cross-site scripting evaluation, and penetration testing using OWASP testing methodology, with all critical vulnerabilities resolved before user acceptance testing. A mock election involving 500 student participants was conducted over five days, with a voter turnout simulation of 78 percent. Result tabulation was completed in under three minutes after poll closure. Independent verification of results by the Electoral Commission team confirmed 100 percent accuracy. The study concludes that e-voting can address electoral integrity challenges in Nigerian university student governance and recommends piloting the system in official elections under proper regulatory oversight.

Keywords: e-voting, student union, Oyo State, election security, Django