Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has clarified that the Senate did not reject electronic transmission of election results in the in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, but only declined to make mandatory real-time transmission of results to the result portal.
Akpabio made the clarification shortly after the upper chamber passed the bill following a marathon session that lasted about four and a half hours.
Debate on the contentious amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, ran from about 2pm to 6.26pm, prompting media reports that lawmakers had voted against electronic transmission of results.
The Senate, instead, retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which allows INEC to determine how results and accreditation data are transmitted, Akpabio stressed.
Reports, earlier Wednesday evening, suggested that the Senate rejected a proposal that would have required presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real time after signing and stamping the prescribed result forms.
The Senate instead retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which allows INEC to determine how results and accreditation data are transmitted.
Reacting to the claims, Akpabio said the interpretation was misleading and stressed that electronic transmission remains part of the law.
He said, “Distinguished colleagues, the social media is already awash with reports that the Senate has literally rejected electronic transmission of results. That is not true. What we did was to retain the electronic transmission which has been in the act and was used in 2022.
“So please, do not allow people to confuse you. If you are in doubt, we will make our final votes and proceedings available to you if you apply.
“This Senate under my watch has not rejected the electronic transmission of results. It is in my interest as a participant in the next election for such to be done. So please don’t go with the crowd.
“We have retained what was in the previous provision by way of amendment. That was all we did. The previous previous has made allowance for electronic transmission. So it is still there as part of our law. We cannot afford to be going backwards.”