The decision by the Senate not to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory has once again placed the spotlight on the discretionary powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, a position already upheld by the Supreme Court.
In October 2023, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT ruled that electronic transmission of election results is not mandatory under the Electoral Act 2022
In its judgement, the court clarified that the INEC Result Viewing, IReV portal is not a collation system but a platform for public viewing.
As such, the failure, delay, or unavailability of results on the portal does not invalidate an election nor halt the manual collation process provided for under the law.
According to the Court, the Electoral Act 2022 does not expressly mandate electronic transmission. Rather, it allows INEC the flexibility to prescribe any method it considers suitable in the conduct of elections.
In line with the power granted it in the Electoral Act, INEC, in its manual and guidelines for the 2023 general elections, had indicated that it would make electronic transmission of results mandatory from the polling units to its results portal, the iRev. But this was not fully implemented.
It became a key issue for determination in the petitions brought by the 2023 Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi and the PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, before the PEPT.
But arguments were thrown out both by the PEPT and later by the Supreme Court on the ground that INEC’s electoral guidelines and manual for conducting the elections were inferior to the Electoral Act 2022.
Both courts also rejected arguments that the manual and electoral guidelines issued by INEC which provided for the e-transmission of results imposed a duty on INEC to enforce it during elections.
The decision of the two courts were consistent with previous decisions on the use of Smart Card Readers in the post-2015 general election cycle, where the Supreme Court agreed that while the card reader was a good innovation in ensuring transparency in elections, it was, at the time, not a mandatory provision of the Electoral Act but only a provision in the INEC election manual and guideline.
Flowing from the outcomes of past electoral litigations, civil society groups and reports of local and international election observer missions recommended mainstreaming key electoral reforms, not only in the guidelines issued by INEC but in the principal act – The Electoral Act
This is why the real-time e-transmission of results from polling units was a major clause in the 2025-2026 electoral reform bill. The expectations were that it will aid transparency and ensure the fidelity of the election results.
But while the House of Representatives allowed the amendments, the Senate after weeks of delays, rejected it, opting instead to retain existing provisions of the Electoral Act that preserves INEC’s discretionary powers.
This means that e-transmission remains injusticiable before the court.
Civil society groups such as YIAGA Africa have warned that what the Senate has done is simply sustaining the loophole that aids election riggers and makes it difficult to question electoral outcomes.
Both chambers will have to meet at the conference committee to harmonise the different aspects of the bill.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
