The Chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has stated that the polling unit results of the governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states will be uploaded on its Result Viewing Portal (IReV). This announcement was made during a visit to monitor a mock accreditation exercise in Kogi ahead of the November 11 governorship elections in these states.
Mr. Yakubu emphasized that the uploading of results is a legal requirement, although he did not specify how promptly the results would be uploaded to IReV. This cautious approach might be influenced by past criticism stemming from the failure to promptly upload polling unit results during the last presidential election, which raised questions about the credibility of the poll.
In the upcoming elections, Mr. Yakubu assured that INEC would follow the laws for accreditation and results collation. He expected the results of the mock election to appear on IReV within two hours.
IReV is an online platform where photographic pictures of polling unit results are meant to be uploaded using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines as soon as voting and collation end at the various voting units.
During the last general elections, INEC had promised to upload results to IReV promptly but failed to do so, leading to delays of days to weeks in making results accessible to the public. INEC attributed the delay to an unforeseen system glitch. This delay became a contentious issue for opposition presidential candidates who alleged widespread fraud during the election and argued that the poll was invalidated by INEC’s failure to promptly upload polling unit results to IReV, as prescribed in the election guidelines.
The Presidential Election Petition Court dismissed these arguments about IReV in September and affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu, asserting that IReV had no place in the legal process of counting and collating results. However, the opposition candidates have raised the issue in their appeals at the Supreme Court, challenging the verdict of the presidential election court.
Regarding security concerns for the upcoming elections in the three states, Mr. Yakubu mentioned that INEC is working closely with security agencies. There will be a high-level meeting in Abuja co-chaired by Mr. Yakubu and the National Security Adviser, where security chiefs will discuss security arrangements for the three states’ elections.
