Opposition group kicks as Senate okays dual transmission of election results

A group, operating under the aegis of the National Opposition Movement (NOM), has sharply criticised the Nigerian Senate over its decision to allow both electronic and manual transmission of election results, warning that the amendment could undermine electoral transparency ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The Senate on Tuesday approved the electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal, while allowing manual collation as a backup when technology fails.

However, the opposition group, in a statement made available to The Eagle Online on Wednesday, said the conditions in the clause signal an electoral setback and weaken the safeguards in the 2022 Electoral Act.

“The National Opposition Movement (NOM) is alarmed at the recent news coming from the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the Electoral Act amendment regarding transmission of election results.

“The Senate ended up passing a provision of the new electoral law that purports to allow electronic transmission of election results from polling units but allows a broad resort to manual collation where transmission fails.

“In other words, this allows any polling officer or the INEC itself not to transmit election results by just stating that there was a technical glitch.

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“An alleged ‘technical glitch’ can be anything INEC deems it so,” the statement said.

According to the group, “This latest resort to trickery, through unduly winding legal draftsmanship, is unbecoming of a legislative assembly that lays claims to the mandate of Nigerians to represent them.

“The Senate acknowledges that the 2023 presidential election was marred by INEC’s failure to electronically transmit election results because the mandate to electronically transmit election results was in guidelines issued by INEC, and not in the Electoral Act on account of which the Supreme Court held that there was no mandatory obligation to electronically transmit election result in the Act.”

The NOM observed that, “The main objective of amending Section 60 of the electoral Act is to enshrine mandatory transmission of election results so that there would be no more discretion to INEC in matter of transmission of results.

“By this new proposal, Senate has expanded INEC’s discretion. INEC can refuse to electronically transmit election results under any pretext because the law has authorized it to do so.”

It further called on Nigerians to recognize the danger that the Senate’s intransigence against democracy poses to Nigeria.

“We are living amongst neighbors where military coups have followed rigged elections. This should be a humbling and wisening experience for Nigeria.

“But not for the Senator Godwill Akpabio led Senate. What the Senate has done amount to total disregard for the overwhelming opinion of Nigerians, not only at the Public Hearings but also on the streets.

“This is a dangerous path and we wish to warn that they will not succeed in this unprovoked attack against the will of Nigerian people,” the group stated.

It also called on international community, “especially the United States and the European Union, to take note of this conspiracy against Nigerian democracy and the determination of the APC government to make sure the 2027 elections is compromised even before the vote.

“It is clear that the Senate is working round the clock to make sure that we do not have a free and fair elections in 2027.”

“Finally, we call on Nigerians, irrespective of political affiliations, the working class people of Nigeria, and sundry professionals, to rise up and oppose this assault on democracy.

“Let us all demand with one voice an electoral law that mandates electronic transmission of election results without any equivocation and subterfuge.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we demand that the version of the Electoral Act amendment passed by the House of Representatives be adopted as the final version of the new Electoral Act.

“We shall resist Akpabio and those of his colleagues’s plotting against electoral integrity.

“No retreat. No surrender,” concluded the statement e-signed by Hon Chille W. Igbawua, Hon Zakari Mohammed, Hon Abiodun Olasupo, Mr Kenneth Okonkwo, Hon Sergius Ogun, and Mallam Ibrahim AbdulKareem.

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