The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has attributed the challenges being faced by the commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to technical hitches related to the scaling up of the platform.
This disclosure is contained in a statement signed by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on Sunday, where he admitted that the commission is aware of issues with IReV, which has been relatively slow and unsteady.
Okoye, who assured that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of their system as the IReV platform remains well secured, however, noted that their technical team is working assiduously to solve all outstanding problems.
INEC acknowledges the importance of Result Viewing Portal
Okoye in the statement said that INEC acknowledges the importance of IReV in the results management process, hence the need to quickly address the problems.
- The statement from Okoye reads, “The Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal. Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady. The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.
- “The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.
- “Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems and that the IReV remains well-secured.
- “Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.’’
INEC assures that results are safe on BVAS and IReV portal
- The INEC Spokesman added, “We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal. These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
- “While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.
- “We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties, and the electorate.”
For the record
- In a related development, there have been several reported cases of the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections leading to delays in the voting process.
- Many voters and stakeholders in the electoral system had expressed their dissatisfaction over the inability of INEC to upload the election results that had already been collated, raising concerns over the credibility of those results.
I actually voted peacefully, but was very disappointed with the paper voting system which has to be counted manually and then uploaded separately on INEC result portal which gives so much room for result manipulation especially if the entry is not made in the presence of party agents due to network or other obvious issues. It is obvious that most Nigerian political leaders at all levels do not want full electronic voting because it would prevent them from bribing electoral officers and manipulating results. I was so optimistic about the prospect of a free and fair election prior to the election day, but now I must confess that I feel used and exploited after going thru the pains of voter registration, card collection and voting, only to be hearing stories of result manipulation and cheating by some INEC officials.