The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has recently clarified that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not mandated by law to electronically transmit electoral results. Dele Alake, the Special Adviser on Media and Communications at the PCC, announced this during a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
Alake stated that the transmission of election results should be up to the discretion of the electoral body. Furthermore, he explained that the Electoral Act 2022 does not contain any mandatory provision that requires the transmission of results. He also highlighted that Section 38 of the Electoral Act 2022, which the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) relied on, would not be sufficient in court.
According to Alake, Section 60, sub-section 2 of the Electoral Act 2022 deals with the transmission of results, but it is at the discretion of INEC. He emphasised that transmitting results from polling units, whether in real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot change the results already announced. Therefore, the uploading of results cannot lead to the manipulation of figures.
Alake also reiterated the importance of counting votes in the presence of party agents and the hearing of voters. He stressed that what mattered was that polls were accurately measured and recorded, not the method of transmission of results.
“In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later, or at any time, cannot change the results that have been announced,” he reiterated.
