By Our Reporter
The Nigerian Senate at its emergency meeting on Tuesday, made a U-turn and approved the electronic transmission of polling unit results.
This came after it amended Clause 60(3), of the Electoral Act.
The Senate, however, retained the FFormC8A as a safeguard against technical failure.
The new position followed a motion moved by the Senate Chief Whip, Mohammed Monguno, seeking to rescind the chamber’s earlier rejection of real-time electronic transmission of election results. The Senate had last Wednesday retained provisions of the extant Electoral Act, 2023, which effectively limited electronic transmission.
With the adoption of the new proposal, the Senate passed an amended Clause 60(3), permitting the presiding officer at each polling unit to transmit election results electronically after Form EC8A has been duly completed and signed.
Under the approved clause, electronic transmission is allowed where the technology does not fail and is usable.
However, in situations where electronic transmission fails or becomes impossible, the signed Form EC8A will serve as the primary source of election results.
While emphasizing the provision of the amended act, Akpabio read that: “The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units.
“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the results fails as a result of communication failure, the manually signed and stamped Form EC8A shall be the primary source of collation and declaration of
Many Nigerians, however, are not satisfied with the amendment, saying it created a window for manipulation.
With additional reports from the National Posts