e-Transmission of Election Results Practicable – INEC Insists

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has declared that its joint committee made up of telecommunication stakeholders had revised the system and concluded that electronic transmission of election results was practicable.

INEC specifically said that the use of the technology will be feasible in the deepening of democracy in Nigeria, stressing that it had many times demonstrated it through the creative, innovative and strategic deployment and application of technology in various aspects of the electoral process with the goal of limiting human interference in the electoral process as much as possible.

The electoral body which stated these against the backdrop of the rejection of electronic transmission of election results by the National Assembly in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, stressed that it has the capacity to transmit election results from the polling units to the Registration Area Collation Centres to the Local Government Collation Centres, the various state, federal and senatorial district collation centres, and the state and national collation centres.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye Esq, who stated the position of the Commission during an interview in Abuja, further said; “The Joint Technical Committee constituted by the commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and made of telecommunication operators met on March 9, 2018, and the consensus was that the requirements for the electronic transfer of results proposed by INEC is practicable.

“The meeting, therefore, agreed that the solution that INEC wants to deploy is possible. We have the assurance of the service providers that they have provided similar technological solutions to other agencies and have the capacity to deploy technology to cover a few blind spots.

“The commission will continue to pilot different solutions bearing in mind that technology is dynamic and can limit human interference in the electoral process.

“The commission wants broad powers to deploy technology and is not in favour of a particular solution being written into the law,” Okoye said.

INEC however said that it a creation of the constitution and the law, adding that its powers are derived from the constitution.

In the words of the INEC Commissioner; “The constitution has also given the National Assembly the power to make laws but such powers must not be in conflict with and or at variance with the provisions of the Constitution.

“We will continue to implement the provisions of the Electoral Act to the extent of its consistency with the constitution, as the constitution is the fundamental law of the land. The commission will continue to build integrity and trust in the electoral process.

“The Commission has piloted and continues to pilot various electronic solutions that will improve the integrity of the electoral process. Presently, all the registered political parties upload the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates electronically,” he said.

Okoye further said that domestic election observers and the media applied for accreditation to observe and cover elections electronically and that henceforth, political parties would submit the names and photographs of their polling agents electronically.

In his words; “The Commission uploads Form EC8A, being polling unit results to a central viewing portal. Since 2020, the Commission has been uploading these results from different parts of the country.

“The Commission has used and will continue to use the existing technology to upload the results from polling units. The Commission has uploaded results from polling units in Southern Ijaw with its difficult riverine and difficult terrain. The Commission uploaded results from areas that are only accessible through human carriers.

“The Commission uploaded results from conflict areas. The Commission uploaded results from all geopolitical zones. Presently, the Commission has obtained the GPS coordinates of all the 176,846 polling units in the country and expanded voter access to the polling units.

“Currently, the Commission is carrying out part of the continuous voter registration exercise online, while the physical registration of voters will be done using INEC Voter Enrolment Device that will capture the fingerprints and facials of registrants,” Okoye enthused.