Nigerian lawyer and Election Integrity/Good Governance Advocate, Chigozie Nwachukwu Esq has appealed to the Nigerian Senate to save the 2027 elections by approving the real-time electronic transmission of election results.
The All progressive Congress, APC led Nigerian Senate had on Wednesday rejected a proposal to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory, sparking controversy and criticism from opposition parties and civil society groups.
The decision was made during the consideration of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, with Senators voting to retain the existing provision that allows the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to determine the mode of transmission.
The rejected amendment would have required presiding officers to electronically transmit results from each polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-time, after signing and stamping Form EC8A.
However, Senators argued that this could be problematic, especially in areas with weak or non-existent network coverage, and could expose elections to avoidable legal disputes.
Reacting, Nwachukwu in a statement made available to journalists on Friday said the decision of the Senate has “caused widespread despair and loss of confidence in the 2027 electoral process.
According to him, “most Nigerians believe that compulsory transmission of results real time would forestall incidents like, what was witnessed is areas like Rivers State and many other parts of Nigeria, that witnessed widespread allegations of election results manipulation during the 2023 presidential elections.
“This action has cast a very dark cloud on the integrity and transparency of the 2027 elections in Nigeria, setting the stage for a possible pre election showdown between opposition partys, civil society groups against the ruling All progressive Congress government in the coming days, in the very fragile Nigerian polity .
“Many see the reasons allegedly being adduced by the senate leadership for this rejection as flimsy and self serving, there’s hardly any part of Nigeria that is not covered by telephone and Internet network penetration.
“In fact many allude to the fact that even the ruling party are currently registering new Members electronically all over Nigeria, but that when it comes to the protection of the electoral will of the Nigerian people they pay lip service to it.
“This is totally unacceptable and I call on the senate to honorably reverse their current position by reintroducing the compulsory transmission of results into the 2027 bill, inorder to forestall growing tensions that could derail the 2027 Elections.
“The ball is now in the court of the senate to either give life or kill the integrity quotient of the 2027 elections. The world is watching”.
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