Nigeria: INEC Seeks Legal Backing for Irev

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced plans to seek an amendment to the Electoral Act 2022 to clarify issues surrounding result management, particularly the manual transfer and electronic transmission of election results.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja yesterday.

He said that the proposal is one of eight legislative changes arising from the 2023 general elections that require National Assembly action.

“Among the major highlights of the commission’s recommendations is the imperative of legal clarity in result management with regard to manual transfer versus the electronic transmission of results,” Yakubu said.

It would be recalled that the opposition had questioned the credibility of the 2023 presidential election based on the INEC’s failure to rely on election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) portal, following what the electoral umpire called a system glitch that affected the uploading of results on the portal.

Before the election, INEC had vowed that there was no going back on its decision to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IReV for the 2023 general elections. But following the “glitch” and the resort to manual collation of results, the electoral umpire said the IReV portal was just to enhance election transparency and not a results collation or transmission system.

This argument was upheld by the Supreme Court to the surprise of the opponents, who described it as akin to “shifting the goalpost while the game was ongoing.”

The apex court had held that the non-availability of election results on the IReV portal was not a legal ground for the nullification of the February 2023 presidential election as canvassed by the opposition parties and their candidates.

Election observers and legal experts, thereafter, recommended the amendment of the Electoral Act to provide for the compulsory electronic transmission of election results.

Voter accreditation will no longer be solely by PVCs

Similarly, Prof. Yakubu also highlighted the commission’s recommendation to relax accreditation procedures, allowing voters to use computer-generated slips instead of relying solely on Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

He added: “With the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the use of PVCs as the sole means of identification for voter accreditation on Election Day should be reviewed. Those who already have PVCs can still use them to vote, but going forward, computer-generated slips issued to the voter or even downloaded from the commission’s website will suffice for voter accreditation.

“This will not only save costs but also eliminate issues around PVC collection and the unscrupulous practice of buying cards to disenfranchise voters,” he said.

The INEC chairman said the review report contains other key recommendations, including early or special voting for individuals such as INEC officials, security personnel, ad hoc staff, observers, and journalists who are deployed outside their registered polling areas during elections.

“There are also recommendations supporting diaspora voting, unbundling the commission by establishing an electoral offences tribunal, and creating a separate agency to handle political party registration and regulation,” Yakubu noted.

Additionally, the commission aims to improve voter access and polling unit distribution and intends to collaborate with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the National Population Commission (NPC) to clean up the voters’ register.

Prof. Yakubu also stressed the need for affirmative action to enhance the participation of underrepresented groups, robust voter education campaigns to combat misinformation, and strengthened mechanisms for managing logistics agreements with transport unions and service providers.

With the conclusion of five off-cycle governorship elections and nine by-elections since the 2023 general election, Yakubu said the commission is set to begin implementing recommendations from its post-election review.

According to him: “From internal and external engagements, the commission has identified 142 recommendations dealing with preparedness, voter management, voter education, public communication, political parties, electoral operations, election technology, voting and result management, election security, and the electoral legal framework.”

He said, of these recommendations, 86 require administrative action by INEC, while 48 require collaboration with stakeholders such as security agencies, mobile network operators, political parties, transport unions, civil society organisations, and the media.

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Proposals will address core issues – Yiaga Africa

Reacting to the proposals, Samson Itodo, the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, one of the leading election observers in the country, said the proposals are commendable, adding that they form a part of several recommendations by election observers that monitored the conduct of the 2023 general election.

Itodo, a lawyer, said the Electoral Act should be amended to integrate electronic transmission of results into the country’s results collation process to further improve the electoral process.

On the proposed use of computer-generated slips for voter accreditation, Itodo said the move is an important proposal to enhance voter participation and reduce disenfranchisement.

“Allowing voters to cast their ballots with an official form of ID, as long as their names appear on the register and their biometrics can be verified through the BVAS, addresses a critical issue in Nigeria’s electoral process -voter disenfranchisement due to delays or challenges in distributing Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs),” he said.

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