By Peter Omopo
Former senior officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission have raised concerns over what they described as conflicting provisions on electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act 2026, warning that the inconsistencies could undermine electoral integrity if not urgently addressed.
The concerns were expressed on Friday in Abuja during a roundtable organised by Yiaga Africa with the theme “Electronic Transmission and Electoral Integrity: Safeguarding the Vote under the Electoral Act 2026.”
President Bola Tinubu recently signed the amended Electoral Act 2026 into law, prompting INEC to review its election timetable following the repeal of the 2022 Act and the enactment of the new legislation. Civil society organisations have, however, opposed aspects of the new law, advocating real-time transmission of results from polling units to INEC’s central server to curb manipulation and enhance credibility.
Among those who spoke at the event were former National Commissioner Festus Okoye, former Resident Electoral Commissioner Mike Igini and former ICT Director Engr. Chidi Nwafor, alongside other civil society leaders.
Okoye, who previously chaired the Information and Voter Education Committee of the commission, said that while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System remains an innovative device, the 2026 Act contains drafting inconsistencies that may create confusion during implementation.
He recalled that the Smart Card Reader was initially introduced through INEC guidelines before it was formally recognised in the Electoral Act following the 2022 amendment. According to him, although references to the Smart Card Reader were replaced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in some sections of the 2026 Act, the substitution was not made uniformly across the legislation.
Okoye cautioned lawmakers against embedding specific technological names in statutes, noting that technology evolves rapidly and frequent amendments would become necessary each time innovations are introduced. He urged the National Assembly to harmonise the provisions to avoid ambiguity.
He explained that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System was designed as a multifunctional platform capable of voter registration, biometric accreditation, result upload and potential electronic voting if activated. However, he noted that its full capacity for electronic transmission of results has not been fully operationalised.
A key focus of the dialogue was Section 60 of the 2026 Act, which mandates electronic transmission of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal but also provides that Form EC8A, the manually completed result sheet, remains the primary basis for collation and declaration.
Okoye said a close reading of Sections 60 and 65 reveals two distinct transmissions, one to the viewing portal and another to the collation system. He referenced Section 155, which defines transmission as sending results manually or electronically, suggesting that the law accommodates both methods.
He argued that in cases of discrepancies, electronically transmitted results to the collation system should carry greater weight if properly interpreted, adding that the Supreme Court has previously defined the Result Viewing Portal as a viewing platform rather than a collation mechanism.
Former ICT Director Chidi Nwafor traced Nigeria’s technological reforms in elections to early digitised voter registration efforts in 2003 and the later introduction of biometric systems under former INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega.
The former officials called on lawmakers to urgently review and harmonise the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 to eliminate ambiguities and safeguard the credibility of future elections.
