The Independent National Electoral Commission has launched a portal where election results from polling units can be viewed in real time as part of measures to enhance electoral integrity in the country.
The portal will “strengthen the transparency in the election result management system,” the INEC National Commissioner for Information, Mr. Festus Okoye, said in a statement on Thursday.
He said the use of the portal will start with the Nasarawa central state constituency election after which it will also be deployed in Edo and Ondo governorship polls.
Okoye, however, said the measure does not constitute electronic collation of results as collation of election results shall remain a manual process as provided by the law.
The management of results in previous elections has been a major source of concern in Nigeria’s electoral process, with some parties often crying foul by the end of collation.
He said INEC is determined to address these concerns as “it is a fundamental principle of democracy that in elections, votes are not only correctly counted, but that they also count.”
“To further strengthen the transparency in the election result management system, the Commission has decided to introduce a dedicated public portal, the INEC RESULT VIEWING (IReV), that will enable Nigerians to view Polling Unit results real time as the voting ends on election day,” the statement read.
“The Commission wishes to emphasize that this does not constitute electronic collation of results. The collation of election results shall remain as provided for by law, a manual process of completion of relevant result sheets and their upwards collation until the final results are determined.
“The Commission hopes that this innovation would improve the transparency in election result management and therefore further consolidate public confidence in the electoral process.”
Ahead of the Nasarawa election holding on Saturday, the commission said at the end of the election, the result sheet can be assessed on the INEC results viewing portal (IReV) after the registration process has been completed.
Nigerians have almost lost faith in the country’s electoral system which has become so abused that elections are no longer won on the basis of popularity of candidates but ability to deploy brute force, financial resources, manipulate electoral officers or secure favorable judgements in courts.
It is yet to be seen how INEC would improve on the low trust credit it has before Nigerians.
