Senate takes action on electronic, manual transmission of results

The Senate on Tuesday amended Section 60 of the Electoral Act to allow presiding officers at polling units to electronically transmit election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Results Viewing Portal (IREV).

The decision came during an emergency plenary session, with Senate President Godswill Akpabio outlining the procedure for the new system.

“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,” Akpabio said.

He also clarified the fallback mechanism in case of network challenges.

“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 added.

The amendment, approved as Clause 60(3), follows a motion by Senate Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno seeking to reverse the Senate’s earlier rejection of real-time electronic transmission.

The Senate had previously retained provisions of the 2023 Electoral Act, which limited electronic transmission.

With the new amendment, the presiding officer may transmit results electronically where technology allows, but in the event of technical failure, the signed Form EC8A will remain the authoritative source for collation and announcement.

The passage sparked debate on the Senate floor.

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Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe initially called for a division on the matter but later withdrew the request.