Electronic result transmission should have been settled years ago

By Lawrence Agbo

Mike Igini, a former Independent National Electoral Commission resident electoral commissioner, noted that the return of the argument over electronic transmission of election results is a “painful and sad reality,” arguing that the matter should have been settled years ago.

Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Igini criticized what he described as a setback in Nigeria’s electoral reform efforts.

“It’s a painful and sad reality that after several years of collective efforts to give meaning and purpose to the ballots as the best means of expressing the will of the people in a democracy, here we are again, several years after debating what had been long supposed to have been settled,” he said.

The former REC also made personal concern with the present status of electoral reforms, stating that recent events feel “wasted” after three decades of advocacy and roughly ten years on the commission.

The lawyer further contended that the electoral body had been mainly ignored.

“This debate, INEC is absent in this debate. INEC is isolated. It is INEC that conducts elections… the commission is expected to speak,” he said.

He emphasized the need for lawmakers to take lessons from the past and cautioned that restoring uncertainty around electronic transmission could pose significant issues ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Concerns about network constraints should not stop reforms, Igini added, and the Result Viewing portal (IReV) should have clear legal support.

The discussion comes after the Senate considered changes to the Electoral Act 2022, which at first caused a lot of controversy when lawmakers turned down a plan to require results to be transmitted electronically in real time.

The dispute started on February 4 when the Senate approved an amended bill that, among other things, shortened INEC’s election notice publication period from 360 to 180 days.

Clause 60(3), which attempted to make e-transmission a legal requirement by requiring presiding officers to electronically transmit polling-unit results to the IReV portal as soon as they completed Form EC8A, was at the heart of the argument.

The clause that permits INEC to choose the method of result transmission was first rejected by the Senate, though.

Aisha Yesufu and Rotimi Amaechi joined Peter Obi and other civil society groups in protesting the move in the National Assembly.