Dare Babalola
The Senate has approved the transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal via electronic means, with manual collation permitted as a contingency measure in the event of technological failure.
The decision was made after a disputed clause in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was reconsidered during an emergency Senate plenary session on Tuesday.
The Senate stopped short of mandating electronic transmission and rejected the provision for real-time upload of results.
Presiding officers at polling units are required to electronically transmit results to the IReV portal after completing voting and documentation, as per the reviewed section.
The amendment stipulates that if electronic transmission is hindered by communication or network issues, the manual result sheet (Form EC8A) will serve as the primary document for collation and declaration.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio called for a voice vote on the amendment, inviting senators who opposed it to formally challenge the decision.
“It’s very simple. If you disagree with him, move your counter motion. So, if you agree with him, you agree with me when I put the votes,” Akpabio said.
He explained that the motion before the chamber sought to reverse an earlier Senate decision on Section 60, Subsection 3 of the Electoral Act.
“When I ask for the votes, when I ask for your consent, let me read the motion. His earlier motion, which passed in our last sitting, he has sought to rescind that. That is in respect of Section 60, Subsection 3. And this is what he said,” Akpabio stated.
Reading the amended clause, Akpabio said, “That the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IReV portal. And such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents, where available at the polling units, because sometimes you don’t see any polling agent.”
The Senate President added that the law now accounts for situations where electronic transmission is impossible.
“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the results fails as a result of communication failure — in other words, maybe network or otherwise — and it becomes impossible to transmit the results electronically in Form EC8A signed and stamped by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units, the Form EC8A shall in such a case be the primary source of collation and declaration of results,” he said.
The amendment has sparked concerns among civil society organisations and opposition figures, who argue that allowing manual results to override electronically transmitted ones could weaken transparency and create room for manipulation, especially in areas with poor network coverage.
