Real-time result transmission not e-voting, Senate clarifies

Addressing concerns surrounding the bill, Adegbonmire said Nigeria has not transitioned to an e-voting system, contrary to suggestions in some quarters.

“People need to understand what real-time means. Real-time transmission can only happen if INEC adopts an e-voting system. For now, INEC does not have the capability for e-voting. Maybe in two or three years, we can adopt e-voting. But as of today, INEC has not put an e-voting system in place,” he said.

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He explained that under the proposed framework, presiding officers are required to first complete Form EC8A manually at the polling unit. The completed form is then transmitted to the IReV portal.

“It is the Form EC8A that has been filled manually and will be transmitted to IReV. If we change ‘transmit’ to ‘upload’ in the Electoral Bill 2026, will it change anything? The answer is no,” he added.

The lawmaker, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, emphasised the need to correct misconceptions about IReV, noting its significance to electoral transparency and national stability.

He reiterated that IReV is not a voting platform but a system designed to make publicly available results already declared by presiding officers at polling units across the country.

“It is important, first of all, to understand what IReV does because there is a lot of misconception about it or deliberate misrepresentation of what it stands for. The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections. So, what is IReV? It is software developed by INEC to publicise the results by INEC.

“IReV is not an e-voting platform as some people think. This is the misinformation some people are peddling. They keep saying when I want to see my vote. But in reality, IReV is a platform meant to publicise election results already declared at the polling units.

“This is not an emotional argument. I heard people say the version of the House of Representatives should be adopted. It is a sheer misconception. What does the version say? It simply says the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the result from each polling unit to the IReV portal in real time, and such transmission shall be done after Form EC8A has been signed by the presiding officer and countersigned by the candidate or polling agent at the polling unit…”

He also explained that IReV, as an electronic platform to display election results, had “a pattern of working, and the National Assembly cannot change the software by mere legislation. It was a sheer misconception to conclude that the Senate declined the use of IReV for the transmission of election results.”

“Whether we call it upload, transfer, or transmission, as far as it says IReV must be used, it will be used in the manner it was configured. That is the point I am making. You must first manually write out the figure. After you have written out the figure at the polling unit, you can upload, transfer, or transmit, depending on the nomenclature we want to use.

“When you have not complied with the proper filing of Form EC8A, you cannot transfer, transmit, or upload it. That is what people must understand. When you talk about transmission, it has nothing to do with the sanctity of the voting process. If you are given a ballot paper to thumbprint, it is counted manually after the election. It is not IReV or BVAS that counts ballots. The vote count is manually done.

“In my own case, for instance, I come from Akure. I vote in Akure. All the electoral materials are brought into Akure two to three days before the election. They are kept in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The night before, they start transporting them to different locations across the state. In Ondo State, there are places where one has to travel for eight hours to get there. In some cases, they have to use boats to get to the riverine areas.

“This means voting cannot start at the same time nationwide. In Akure, voting can start at 10:00 a.m. In other parts of the state, voting may not start until 2:00 p.m., or even some at 4:00 p.m. in some cases. Most likely, they will finish the vote count by 10:00 p.m.

“In Akure, for instance, the presiding officers will upload election results at polling units at 4:00 p.m. because voting is concluded as scheduled. In Arugbo Ijaw, however, voting kicks off at 4:00 p.m. This is the reality in the country, and we must consider it in our reforms. The truth of the matter is that you are not going to see how you voted on the IReV because it is not an e-voting platform

“What the Senate has done is that we do not want a situation in which somebody will come and say this man ought to have uploaded this result at 2:00 p.m. You and I know that it is not every time you put something on the Internet that will go through freely. If we are not careful, the smallest thing will spark an issue.

“If somebody said the election result was declared at 2:00 p.m, how did you put it on IReV at 7:00 pm? They will simply assume that the election results must have been rigged. The media need to be careful how they report all these issues.”