By The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cleared the air on the misunderstanding over its procedure for result management during elections which arised from a recent interview granted to a national newspaper.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye told The PUNCH on Saturday that the Commission would adopt the manual mode of collation for the 2023 polls.
However, in a statement on Sunday, Okoye said it was incorrect for people to interpret the explanation on result management procedure to mean that INEC has jettisoned the electronic transmission of result.
“For clarity, the procedure for result transmission remains the same as in recent Governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States. There will be no change in all future elections, including the 2023 General Election,” the statement read in part.
“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.”
Okoye further appealed to Nigerians to avail themselves of the provisions of the Electoral Act and the electoral umpire’s detailed explanation of the procedure and not reach a conclusion on the basis of media headlines.
