From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Senate has on Tuesday, approved an amendment to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, allowing for both electronic e-transmission and manual collation of election results.
This decision was made during a rowdy plenary session, when the Senate Chief Whip, Mohammed Monguno, urging the Chamber to rescind its previous rejection on real-time electronic transmission and amend Clause 60 (3) of the Electoral Act to transmit election results from the polling units directly to the INEC iRev.
Last Wednesday, the Senate had retained provisions of the extant Electoral Act 2023, which effectively restricted the use of electronic transmission. However, with the new amendment, lawmakers endorsed a framework that allows electronic transmission while retaining manual documentation as a safeguard and alternative in case of network failures through Form EC8.
The Senate further explained that, Form EC8 must duly be completed, stamped, and signed by the Electoral Officer and countersigned by all the agents available and take them to the collation Center for documentation.
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However, the retention of Form EC8A as a fallback option has already raised concerns among stakeholders, with critics warning that the provision could create a potential loophole that may be exploited to jettison electronic transmission under questionable circumstances.
According to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, “the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units.
“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the results fails as a result of communication failure, the manually signed and stamped Form EC8A shall be the primary source of collation and declaration of results”, he said.
This new position has been met with mixed reactions, as opinions remain sharply divided over the discrepancies and potential implications of the amended provision within the bill, particularly the balance between technological transparency and manual safeguards.
