The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the collation of the 2023 general election results would be done manually, despite the introduction of electronic transmission of results.
Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, emphasized that the Commission will submit voting unit results to the results viewing portal IReV, as was the case in recent elections, but Electoral act is clear how compilation is done to the target.
In an interview with PUNCH NEWSPAPER correspondent on Saturday, Okoye said, “There is a distinct difference between sending/transmitting results and compiling results. and gives the Commission complete discretion to decide on the transmission of election results.”
“Sections 60 and 62 of the Electoral Act govern post-election procedure and collation of election results. Section 60(1) of the Act provides that the presiding officer shall, after counting the votes at a polling unit, enter the votes scored by each candidate in a form to be prescribed by the commission.”
“Section 60(5) of the Act makes it mandatory that the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot in a manner prescribed by the commission. Thereafter, the presiding officer shall after recording and announcing the results deliver the same along with election materials under security and accompanied by the candidates or their polling agents, where available to such person as may be prescribed by the commission.”
“The implication of this is that the collation process of results is still essentially manual, but the collation officer must collate subject to his verification and confirmation that the number of accredited voters stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the number of accredited voters recorded and transmitted directly from polling units.”
He explained that although the matching of results is “basically” done manually, in the event of a dispute about the matching results or the results of any voting unit, returning officers, will use the original of the contested match result, accreditation data from the BVAS device, and results transmitted directly from the voting unit to determine the accuracy of the results.