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Tag: IReV

  • IReV: Fishing for excuse ahead 2027 polls

    IReV: Fishing for excuse ahead 2027 polls

    During and immediately after the 2023 elections, the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal became the most controversial and ready excuse for the opposition to explain their defeat. Two of the opposition parties, the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), seized upon the chaotic real-time results transmission issue to argue the unjustifiability of their losses. But while the LP had no agents in over 41,000 polling units out of over 176,000 polling units nationwide, and therefore knew little of what transpired in those unmanned areas, it insisted that the non-transmission of results through IReV explained their presidential candidate’s defeat. The PDP was less sanguine about the sanctity of that excuse, but rather chose to dwell on the pre-election issue of the qualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate to contest the poll. Yet, neither the PDP nor the LP substantially contested the integrity of the Form EC8A result sheets, which, unlike the hackable IReV, was available to be scrutinised by defeated candidates and their agents and lawyers.

    Unusually, more than a year before the next polls, and focusing intently on the amendments to the 2022 Electoral Act, the opposition parties have renewed their bitter campaign against any provision that attempts to circumscribe the real-time transmission of election results to the IReV portal during the 2027 elections. They hold on to the implausible argument that the secret to their electoral success in 2027 lies with Section 60 of the Electoral Act that provides for the electronic transmission of results. By retaining the 2022 Act, which sustains the discretion of INEC to determine how results are transmitted electronically or otherwise, instead of making the IReV mandatory, the opposition seems to think they have no chance in the next polls.

    READ ALSO: Kwara massacre belies end of Mamuda/JNIM terrorists

    Former vice president Atiku Abubakar, leader of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) widely believed to be set to pick up the party’s presidential ticket, spoke through his media office by condemning the retention of the 2022 provision for results transmission. Said he: “Real-time electronic transmission of results is not a partisan demand; it is a democratic safeguard. It reduces human interference, limits result manipulation, and ensures that the will of the voter expressed at the polling unit is faithfully reflected in the outcome. To reject it, and adopt the 2022 provision on so-called electronic transmission of results, is to signal an unwillingness to submit elections to public scrutiny.” Whatever former LP presidential candidate Peter Obi thinks of the contentious provision, his views have begun to be subsumed under Alhaji Atiku’s position.

    Their opposite number in the opposition, the flailing Tanimu Turaki-led PDP, is even more lyrical and vociferous in opposing the retention of Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022. Said the party’s spokesman: “After an intentional and protracted delay, the Senate, while passing the amendment to the Electoral Act, rejected the electronic transmission of results at the polling units. This rejection is most shameful and unfortunate, attracting condemnation from all democratic-minded persons…Electronic transmission would have brought an end to the ignoble practice that has been deployed by politicians to win elections against the wishes of the people expressed through the ballot…This is indeed a sad day for electoral democracy.” What would the opposition say of the United States President Donald Trump who is attempting to ‘nationalise’ elections in the US as opposed to state control?

    Regardless of the arguments of the opposition, Section 60 is not the be-all and end-all of elections in Nigeria. There are other provisions in the Electoral Act, including the signing and dissemination of Form EC8A as well as other processes, that are even safer and more important to the success of elections in these parts. Crucially too, Nigeria’s telecommunications sector features uneven coverage around the country, especially depending on the region and the available infrastructure, while internet penetration is still average. The opposition parties do not spare a thought for the sometimes ineffective networks, sometimes unreliable telecoms infrastructure, and the difficulties agencies like INEC experiences in protecting their networks against hackers. In the last elections, IReV was used in many instances but not overwhelmingly.

    It promotes disorder, if not anarchy, to engineer distrust of the electoral body especially when the Electoral Act already makes provision for the manual transmission of results. If the opposition will spend as much time in organising themselves and ensuring that polling units are manned and Form EC8A are preserved, they will stand a better chance of supplying needed proofs of electoral malfeasance should it arise. After all, there was no mandatory IReV in 2015 when the ruling party lost the presidential election to the opposition; while in many states, ruling parties lost governorship and legislative polls.

    It is an improvement of the Nigerian electoral process that despite poor technology and low internet coverage, especially in rural areas, the framers of the Electoral Act 2022 courageously provided for the electronic transmission of results despite lack of electronic voting. It is also reassuring that the same provision has been retained rather than expunged, contrary to the impression given by the opposition. With time, and with substantial improvement in internet and telecoms coverage, Nigeria will get to a point where the method of balloting and results transmission will not be an issue. It is important that Nigerians are not bewitched into thinking that IReV is the single most important factor in electoral outcomes. It is not.

  • INEC uploads Bayelsa results on IREV

    INEC uploads Bayelsa results on IREV

    Following the ongoing election process in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States, a political group under the auspices of Co Federation of All Progressives Congress Support Groups (CASG), on Saturday, November 11, called on Nigerians to remain calm and follow due process.

    CASG advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be professional and transparent as Nigerians await the results of the election in the concerned states.

    The Director General of the group, Dr. Kailani Muhammad while briefing reporters in Abuja on the state of the nation cautioned against any action that will truncate the electoral process.

    Muhammad also pleaded with security agencies to ensure live up to expectations and prevent violence during and after the election.

    He said: “Nigerians should shun violence especially those in the three states the election is ongoing. We should all ensure a peaceful process and not the other way around.

    “INEC should keep on doing its best to ensure a peaceful outcome of the election. I think there is a little improvement compared to the previous elections.

    “We hope in the near future INEC will buy a generator where there is no light or install a solar system to function better. They should be transparent and monitor proceedings. We pray that APC wins in all the three states without crisis.”

    Muhammad also faulted the recent disruption of flights by members of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) over the recent assault on its National President, Comrade Joe Ajaero in Imo state.

    He described the development as unpatriotic and bad.

    Read Also: Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi election: group calls for calm, urges INEC to be professional

    The group expressed sadness that despite its pleading to NLC to shelve its planned strike and shun any act capable of disturbing the peace of the country, the leadership of the unions still ordered the strike.

    The group advised the NLC president to engage the government instead of causing more trouble for Nigerians.

    Muhammad said: “We are not happy over the disruption of flights by the NLC protest over the recent assault on its National President, Comrade Joe Ajaero in Imo state.

    “We condemned NLC’s action. NLC should engage the government and endure a roundtable discussion instead of causing more trouble.

    “NLC cannot be more powerful than government. We as groups will not take this action again. Nigeria belongs to all of us. We should always ensure and seek peace.”

  • INEC denies withdrawing password for upload of result to IREV

    INEC denies withdrawing password for upload of result to IREV

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied withdrawing the password for the upload of election results to the INEC Election Result viewing portal from Presiding Officers.

    In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekunmi, the commission said that passwords for the upload of results have been securely released to the Presiding Officers in accordance with the practice of the commission.

    Read Also: INEC denies withdrawal of passwords for results upload in Imo

    The statement said: “The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission has been drawn to a story attributed to unknown “concerned workers” of the Commission that passwords for result upload have been withdrawn from LGA Supervisors for use by APO1s in Imo State. This is untrue.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, Presiding Officers (POs), and not APO1s (Assistant Presiding Officers 1) are responsible for result upload to the IReV.

    “All the passwords have been securely released for use by designated officials in line with the Commission’s procedure.

    “The public should expect more of such insinuations before, during, and after the elections, and continue to discountance them.”

  • Beyond IReV, weshould pay attentionto integrity at polling stations– Adebayo

    Beyond IReV, weshould pay attentionto integrity at polling stations– Adebayo

    Prince Adewole Ebenezer Adebayo was the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election. Adebayo, in a recent interview with some journalists, bared his mind on some issues. Gbenga Aderanti was there. Excerpts.

    What is your take on the resolution of the Senate to amend the Electoral Act?

    One thing we need to know in legislation is that legislators always like to solve new legislation with the problems of the past.

    So,  the assumption is that the problem of the next election will be the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

     From what I know, the problems will not be IReV. It will be another thing. Let us say this is the beginning of the conversations of what we can do, legislatively, to improve our electoral system. But the problem we have isn’t a shortage of legislation. There are three things I observed.

    The first is that there is nothing in the 2023 elections I participated in that suggested to me that anything went wrong because of IReV. None of the petitioners has been able to complain that it was because of the problems with IReV that the results that were declared at the polling units were different from the results that were ultimately used.

    When you go through the filing proceedings and judgments of the court, you will find it hard to find one record where they say that in this particular unit, this was the result but because it wasn’t immediately transmitted to the INEC website, the result changed, I don’t think you will find anything like that. That isn’t the problem.

    Like I said on October 1, 2021, in the media, I said they would just be disturbing you with issues of technology which on the day of the elections, someone might just decide to switch off in INEC and say it didn’t work. Even if it is in the electoral act (assuming it is passed into law) that the result must be immediately transmitted, if on that day, supposing something goes wrong, like for example, there is a nationwide network problem, or VPN isn’t working, or the system is corrupted, and things like that, the constitution would still want you to find out whether you can otherwise establish the actual winner of the election.

    I think integrity at the polling station is what we should pay attention to. Things like making sure people don’t buy votes, you cannot commit violence, making sure that the distance between the polling booth and the nearest third party isn’t less than about 100 feet so that anybody who is voting can be in doubt that they are out of sight and out of hearing of the people. So, if a person decides to influence you by giving you money or anything of value, they will not ultimately know what you are doing in the ballot box area.

    So, I think reform of character is what we are afraid of doing, and we want to be tweaking with technology.

    Yes, no problem if you add the issue of IReV to the solution, but don’t expect that you can go to bed and say you have solved the election controversy in Nigeria.

    Nigerians have had cause to question the independence of INEC as all members of the board, including the chairman, are appointed by the president. Its former chair, Professor Attairu Jega, also wants the president stripped of the appointing power so that it can truly be independent.

    There are quite a lot of things to strip the president of. But who do you give it to? Remember that our founding fathers had expected that we would look for the best of the best among us and make him president, and that president is our Head of State so that he would think clearly for the country and he would be one of the most honorable men in our midst who is willing to take up the job.

     For that reason, even in the most important positions, constitutional positions that are more important than the INEC, for example, the Chief Justice of the Federation, President of the Court of Appeal, Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice of Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, the entire judiciary, the president is the appointing authority. If there are more sensitive positions that are even expected to be more independent than the INEC are left in the hands of the president to select, then what is special about the INEC chairman and the commissioners?

    Read Also: PDP tasks INEC on BVAS, IReV for Nov 11 polls

    I think the problem isn’t about taking it from the president. But who do you give it to?

    Is the nomination of the judiciary officers not different? The NJC, as we know, is empowered in the selection process before the president appoints. Isn’t that another way of checking the powers of the president?

    No. Under the presidential constitution, all over the world, the president is advised. Despite your advice, the president can take a good, brilliant young lawyer with about 15 years of experience as Chief Justice of Nigeria. Your advice isn’t binding on him. The president has a lot of future appointments to make. And if you want to go into a new system where you don’t trust him to make sensitive appointments, then you go across the board and look at the appointments the president makes. In some countries, for example, the equivalent of the INEC, the electoral members are chosen from among the political parties, thinking that if every political party has someone there, there won’t be any political party that would cheat the others. But in our system, the chairman is chosen by the president. Even the Senate, they are assuming they don’t have a role to play. When the president appoints electoral or national commissioners or chairman of the commission, the person doesn’t go straight to the office, he goes to the Senate for Nigerians to ask whether this person is a good choice or not. Never in the history of the Senate have they rejected the chairman of the INEC or national commissioners except for Lauretta Onochie.

    So, if people are living according to good character, and they are worthy of the offices they are occupying and the oath of office they have taken, the system we have now will work.

    The alternative is to say the same Chief Justice of Nigeria should appoint the INEC chairman, but the same Chief Justice is also an appointee of the president anyway. If you say he (Chief Justice) should appoint the chairman of INEC, there would be instances where litigants complain even the empanelling of justices to hear their matter. I think we should ask ourselves, what has happened? Why can’t we find any more people of character who are above board?

    Is it that our political system is so corrupt that we can’t find people who are above board? That is the question we should be asking because one way or another, the person that is going to appoint INEC commissioners or chairman would have to be a Nigerian. Whether he is the president, Chief Justice of Nigeria, or senator, that person must be a Nigerian.

    I think it is the quality of the character of our leadership is what we need to examine. It shouldn’t be a difficult role to fill if everyone is playing their roles.

     I will be more inclined if the Senate says whoever the president chooses, we would open that person to Nigerians and we are not going to approve that person except the person proves to be a thoroughly vetted Nigerian that has the highest esteem, not the one they are trying to deprive someone from the other arm. For example, if you pass such a law that you want to remove appointing power from the president, supposing the president refuses to sign and says no, you cannot take my power from me. I will not sign it into law. What do you do? It is better not to be ticking the can to the other side or involved in the blame game.

    Let the Senate look at itself as a chamber and ask itself an honest question. Have we in the Senate, done our best in vetting the nominees to INEC?

    The National Assembly has the power to oversee the INEC. It had the constitutional power to oversee the INEC. It has the power to approve the INEC emoluments and budget, including conducting a hearing to remove any INEC commissioners or national chairman who is not living up to his performance. So, I think the system is robust enough if we can have men and women of character to come and run the system.

    The economic team of the president is in full swing. In your view, have they lived up to expectations?

    A. They are on top of the situation they created for themselves. There isn’t anything happening in the economy presently that I haven’t predicted.

    What they are facing now is what is called factor cost stabilization. If they can deal with that, then they would have reduced most of the crises they have on their hands.