Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu.

The Independent Electoral Commission has assured that it has no plans to jettison the electronic transmission of election results in the 2023 general elections.

Recall that Chairman of the commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu was quoted by a national newspaper in Nigeria in a recent interview as saying that the commission would adopt a manual collation and transmission of results in the forthcoming 2023 elections, which had been condemned by many citizens across all social media.

Many had also interpreted the statement to mean that the commission was planning to rig the elections in favour of one of the political parties, which many said would be strongly resisted and which might lead to a serious revolution if the will of the people was subverted.

However, in a statement signed by the INEC’s Commissioner for voter education, Festus Okoye, the commission said there was no iota of truth in such allegation as the commission has set a template under which all election results would be collated and transmitted electronically as was the case in Ekiti and Osun States’ recently concluded governorship elections.

The statement reads in part: “The attention of the Independent Electoral Commission INEC has been drawn to a misunderstanding arising from a recent short interview granted to a national newspaper on the procedure for result management during the election.

“Some have interpreted the explanation or result management procedure to mean that the commission has jettisoned the electronic transmission of results and reverted to the manual process. This is not correct.

“For clarity, the procedure for result transmission remains the same as in the recent governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States. There will be no change in all future elections including the 2023 general elections.

“We wish to reassure Nigerians that the electronic transmission of results has come to stay. It adds to the credibility and transparency of the process when citizens follow polling units’ level results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on real- time election day. There will be will be no change or deviation in subsequent elections.

“The entire gamut of result management is provided for in sections 60, 62 and 64 of the Electoral Act 2022. In line with the provision of the law, the commission, in April this year, released a detailed clarification of the procedure for transmission, collation and declaration of results, which was shared with all stakeholders and uploaded INEC website.

“We appeal to all Nigerians to avail themselves of the provisions of the Electoral Act and the commission’s detailed explanation of the procedure and not reach a conclusion on the basis of media headlines.”