2023 Elections and Unnecessary Confusion Over Manual Collation of Results, By Moshood Isah
2023 Elections and Unnecessary Confusion Over Manual Collation of Results, By Moshood Isah
INEC President, Professor Mahmood Yakubu
…the outcry over the issue of manual collation is likely due to poor knowledge of the Nigerian electoral framework or lack of trust in the electoral commission and the reputation it has spent the last decade rebuilding. It is indeed worrying that despite the citizens' campaign on electoral reform and the marked improvement in the transparency of our elections, there remains a deficit of trust between Nigerians and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Recently, a mainstream news platform published an article saying that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will manually collate the results of the 2023 elections, which surprisingly generated a lot of criticism and even allegations of potential election rigging. polls from February 2023. The sudden uproar and mixed reactions seem valid on the face of it, considering that a new election law that legalizes (but doesn't mandate) the deployment of election technology came into effect a while ago. six months. However, a closer look at the law guiding the process and administration of the recent Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections shows that manually compiling the election results does not reduce transparency or expose the process to improper manipulation.
In the interview, National Commissioner Festus Okoye backed up his assertion with “Section 60(5) of the 2022 Election Law which requires the Presiding Officer to transfer the results including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot in the manner prescribed by the commission. This means that the presiding officer must, after recording and announcing the results, deliver it together with the electoral material under security and accompanied by the candidates or their electoral agents. , when available to the person designated by the commission.”
The implication of this, he said, is that the process of collecting results is still largely manual, but the collection agent must collect subject to his verification and confirmation that the number of accredited voters shown on the results collected is correct and compatible with the number of accredited voters recorded and transmitted directly from the polling stations. Mr. Okoye even went ahead to explain that while the collation of results would essentially be done manually, in the event of a dispute over a collated result or the result of a voting unit, the collation or the returning officer would use the original of the contested collated result. , the BVAS device accreditation data and the results transmitted directly from the voting unit, to determine the accuracy of the result.
Additional explanations inside the story could not stop the inherent distrust engendered by the Commission over the years, which it had to follow up with an official press release to clarify its position on the collection of results and electronic transmission of election results. It is imperative to add that th...
…the outcry over the issue of manual collation is likely due to poor knowledge of the Nigerian electoral framework or lack of trust in the electoral commission and the reputation it has spent the last decade rebuilding. It is indeed worrying that despite the citizens' campaign on electoral reform and the marked improvement in the transparency of our elections, there remains a deficit of trust between Nigerians and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Recently, a mainstream news platform published an article saying that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will manually collate the results of the 2023 elections, which surprisingly generated a lot of criticism and even allegations of potential election rigging. polls from February 2023. The sudden uproar and mixed reactions seem valid on the face of it, considering that a new election law that legalizes (but doesn't mandate) the deployment of election technology came into effect a while ago. six months. However, a closer look at the law guiding the process and administration of the recent Ekiti and Osun gubernatorial elections shows that manually compiling the election results does not reduce transparency or expose the process to improper manipulation.
In the interview, National Commissioner Festus Okoye backed up his assertion with “Section 60(5) of the 2022 Election Law which requires the Presiding Officer to transfer the results including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot in the manner prescribed by the commission. This means that the presiding officer must, after recording and announcing the results, deliver it together with the electoral material under security and accompanied by the candidates or their electoral agents. , when available to the person designated by the commission.”
The implication of this, he said, is that the process of collecting results is still largely manual, but the collection agent must collect subject to his verification and confirmation that the number of accredited voters shown on the results collected is correct and compatible with the number of accredited voters recorded and transmitted directly from the polling stations. Mr. Okoye even went ahead to explain that while the collation of results would essentially be done manually, in the event of a dispute over a collated result or the result of a voting unit, the collation or the returning officer would use the original of the contested collated result. , the BVAS device accreditation data and the results transmitted directly from the voting unit, to determine the accuracy of the result.
Additional explanations inside the story could not stop the inherent distrust engendered by the Commission over the years, which it had to follow up with an official press release to clarify its position on the collection of results and electronic transmission of election results. It is imperative to add that th...
INEC President, Professor Mahmood Yakubu
