The Senate has approved a hybrid system for transmitting election results, allowing electronic upload to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) while preserving manual collation as a safeguard against technical disruptions.
The resolution was reached on Tuesday during an emergency plenary session, as lawmakers revisited and amended a controversial clause in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Under the revised provision, presiding officers at polling units may electronically transmit results after voting and the completion of all statutory documentation.
However, the Senate stopped short of mandating electronic transmission and also declined to approve real-time uploading of results.
The amendment stipulates that where electronic transmission is hindered by network or communication failures, the manually completed result sheet, Form EC8A, will serve as the authoritative document for results collation and declaration.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, while explaining the changes on the floor of the chamber, said the amendment reversed an earlier Senate decision on Section 60, Subsection 3 of the Electoral Act. He urged lawmakers who opposed the revision to follow legislative procedures in challenging it.
“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.
Reading the amended clause, Akpabio stated:
“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.”
He further clarified that the provision accounts for technological limitations.
“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,” he said.
