The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has debunked insinuations that it it plans to collate the results of the 2023 General Elections manually.
The clarification according to the Commission is inview of misrepresentation of facts arising from a recent short interview granted to a national newspaper on the procedure for result management during elections.
A signed statement issued on Sunday by Bar Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman information and voters Education Committee, indicates that the Commission had no plans to drop electronic transmission of elections results, which it had tested successfully in some recent off-season elections for the old, discredited manual mode as misrepresented in some media reports.
“We wish to reassure Nigerians that the electronic transmission of result has come to stay. It adds to the credibility and transparency of the process when citizens follow polling unit level results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on real-time on Election Day. There will be no change or deviation in subsequent elections.
“The entire gamut of result management is provided for in Sections 60, 62 and 64 of the Electoral Act 2022. In line with the provision of the law, the Commission, in April this year, released a detailed clarification of the procedure for transmission, collation and declaration of result which was shared with all stakeholders and uploaded to our website”
The Commission however appealed to all Nigerians to avail themselves of the provisions of the Electoral Act and the Commission’s detailed explanation of the procedure and not reach a conclusion on the basis of media headlines.
