The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has debunked any notions of electronic result transmission in Nigerian elections.
According to the electoral umpire, it employs the INEC Result Viewing Portal,IReV, system to facilitate the real-time upload of pictures in JPEG format depicting election results from individual polling units.
Technical Adviser to Chairman of INEC Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Prof. Bolade Eyinda, addressed concerns and misconceptions surrounding the election result transmission process during the a two-day capacity-building workshop for INEC Press Corps on Ethical, Safety Practices and Critical Issues Relating to the Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa Governorship Election organized INEC in partnership with the INEC Press Corps, and DAI in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.
He underscored that the IReV platform aims to increase transparency and prevent vote rigging and reinforce the commitment to fair and transparent elections in Nigeria.
He said, “We do not transmit results electronically,” the chairman stressed. “We upload result pictures from the polling unit Form EC8A. You can then use those pictures to go and collate your results.”
Eyinda said, If you are talking of electronic transmission, you are talking of transmission of raw figures. We are not talking about transmission of figures; what we are doing is uploading photographs, and we keep track of all of this. When we say the IReV portal is for transparency, we also interrogate this portal ourselves. If you know the amount of research we ourselves do to validate some of this work before we push it out.
He emphasized, “For the purpose of clarity, let me repeat this again. We do not transmit results electronically. We upload result pictures from the polling unit form EC8A. You can then use those pictures to go and collate your results. Apart from that, we also give results of the Form GC8A to the agents of each political party. We also give it to security agencies. Then we also post it at each polling unit. We call it the people’s results. So let us be clear again.”
He noted, “I am not sure they are quoting the chairman correctly when they say that INEC is uploading results electronically. We upload results real-time, but it is the picture of Form EC8A. The electoral law is clear on this as prescribed by the commission. It is out of our push for transparency that we devised the system, and he should be clear about this. We should not go out of this place with any iota of contradiction of what we upload the EC8A to the IReV portal.
Eyinda further emphasized that the electoral law is clear on this matter, as prescribed by the commission. The IReV platform is a product of INEC’s commitment to transparency and has been designed to provide clear and real-time data on election results.
The IReV platform offers pictures of election results, including the number of votes each candidate received and the percentage of the total votes cast. This system aims to ensure that the election process remains open and accessible to all stakeholders and the general public.
