Senate adopts electronic, manual transmission of election results

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously adopted both electronic and manual modes of transmitting election results.

The two system of transmission of results were adopted by the Senate on Tuesday at a special session.

This also followed two days of protest at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja by Nigerians over the failure to adopt immediate electronic transmission of election results.

The decision followed a reconsideration of a disputed clause in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill during an emergency plenary on Tuesday.

However, the upper chamber stopped short of making electronic transmission compulsory and also rejected the provision for real-time upload of results.

Under the reviewed section, presiding officers at polling units are to electronically transmit results to the IReV portal after voting and documentation are completed.

The amendment, however, provides that where electronic transmission cannot be carried out due to communication or network challenges, the manual result sheet, Form EC8A, will become the primary basis for collation and declaration.

While putting the motion to a voice vote, Senate President Godswill Akpabio urged senators who disagreed with the amendment to formally challenge it.

“It’s very simple. If you disagree with him, move your counter motion. So, if you agree with him, you agree with me when I put the votes,” Akpabio said.

Reading the amended clause, Akpabio said, “That the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IReV portal. And such transmission shall be done after the prescribed 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, because sometimes you don’t see any polling agent.”

The Senate President added that the law now accounts for situations where electronic transmission is impossible.