The Senate has approved electronic transmission of election results with manual backup provisions.
The Senate has approved the electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV), while maintaining manual collation as a backup in case of technical failures.
The decision was reached on Tuesday during an emergency plenary, following a reconsideration of a disputed clause in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
While the amendment allows presiding officers at polling units to electronically transmit results after voting and documentation, it does not make electronic transmission compulsory. Provisions for real-time result uploads were also rejected.
Under the revised law, if electronic transmission is impossible due to network or communication challenges, the manual result sheet, Form EC8A, will serve as the primary source for collation and declaration of results.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio explained the amendment during the plenary and encouraged senators to formally challenge the motion if they disagreed.
“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 further clarified that the amendment reverses a previous Senate decision on Section 60, Subsection 3 of the Electoral Act.
Reading the amended clause, Akpabio said:
“The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IReV portal. 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.”
The Senate President added:
“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, the Form EC8A shall in such a case be the primary source of collation and declaration of results.”
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