By Abuja, Nigeria
The Senate has dismissed reports claiming that it rejected the electronic transmission of election results during consideration of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio made the clarification, shortly after the upper chamber passed the bill following a marathon session that lasted about four and a half hours.
However, several news outlets reports that the Senate shot down a proposal that would have compelled presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit results electronically from each polling unit to the (INEC) Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real time, after signing and stamping the prescribed result forms.
According to the reports, the Senate was said to have instead retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
Reacting to the report, Akpabio insisted that the interpretation was misleading, stressing that the Senate did not remove electronic transmission from the law.
In his words, “So please, do not allow people to confuse you. If you are in doubt, we will make our final votes and proceedings available to you if you apply.”
“This Senate under my watch has not rejected the electronic transmission of results. It is in my interest as a participant in the next election for such to be done. So please don’t go with the crowd.
“We have retained what was in the previous provision by way of amendment. That was all we did. The previous previous has made allowance for electronic transmission. So it is still there as part of our law. We cannot afford to be going backwards,” he added.
