2023: As INEC Reasserts Self

IN THE ARENA

By clearing the fog trailing the rejection of e-transmission of election results by the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission has boldly reasserted its statutory powers, Louis Achi writes

In a very audacious move that demonstrated its willingness to conduct credible elections in 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had recently in its stoutest defence of the electronic transmission of election results, revealed that it had evolved adequate structures and processes to successfully transmit election results electronically.

The agency reiterated its readiness to commence electronic transmission of election results as soon as it gets the legal nod, declaring that Nigeria is ripe for the deployment of the technology.

A seemingly elated INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who revealed this in a 25-page “Position Paper No. 1 of 2021 Electronic Transmission of Election” released, penultimate Saturday, in Abuja, said Nigeria has adequate Information Communication Technology (ICT), infrastructure for e-transmission.

His words: “The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC believes that it has developed adequate structures and processes to successfully transmit election results electronically. Electronic transmission of results will improve the quality of election result management and that our engagement with stakeholders shows that the Nigerian public supports it.

“The technology and national infrastructure to support this are adequate. Consequently, if the choice was up to INEC, the Commission prefers to transmit election results electronically once the necessary legal framework is provided. This Position Paper will, among other things, try to elaborate on the reasons the transmission of election results electronically is both desirable and doable,” he reportedly explained.

More, the electoral umpire further held that to require it to obtain attestation from the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and approval of the National Assembly to implement electronic transmission of election results will be in breach of the Constitution.

Yakubu added that the recent debates regarding e-transmission had not bothered to look at the desirability or otherwise of using the innovation for elections in Nigeria.

According to Yakubu, “Two guiding principles underlying the Commission’s application of technology are timeliness and relevance. These principles underscore the Commission’s belief that the time has come for Nigerian elections to transcend the cumbersome, tardy and vulnerable manual transmission and collation of election results to electronic transmission”.

INEC said it would not abdicate its constitutional duty of superintending the electoral and political process, clarifying it had always interfaced with diverse agencies of government, private sector and civic groups in its resolve to establish a virile and world-class electoral process for the country.

It could be recalled that in what many saw as overweening legislative circus, the National Assembly in July, declined parliamentary endorsement to allow INEC electronically transmit election results. The move had spawned considerable controversy and unsubstantiated allegations of financial inducement of many legislators.

Voting largely along party lines, the Senate rejected the electronic transmission of results, while the House of Representatives ruled it should only be done after INEC gets the permission of the National Communication Commission (NCC) and the National Assembly.

Indeed, the lawmakers elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) rallied few opposition lawmakers to vote against the e-transmission of results.

However, the two chambers of the National Assembly are set to meet to harmonise their positions before a final amended bill is sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for his signing into law.

INEC’s bold initiative to proactively and publicly engage core stakeholders and the public at large speaks to an important and welcome shift in strategy.

Clearly, the objectives of INEC’s position paper was to explain the desirability of electronic transmission of results as an electoral reform issue as well as clarify the position of the electoral umpire on some of the central issues around e-transmission of results.

To shred lingering suspicions that INEC is secretly working hand-in-gloves with some unsavoury, anti-progressive forces plotting to rig elections, the national election body clarified that, “if the choice was up to INEC, the commission prefers to transmit election results electronically once the necessary legal framework is provided.”

“It’s noteworthy that for several off-season and by-elections conducted since the 2019 general election, INEC had begun to electronically publish images of polling unit results through its INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal.

“This system had been deployed in several major off-season/end-of-tenure and by-elections, including the Edo and Ondo states’ governorship elections, six senatorial and three federal constituency by-elections, 15 state constituencies and one councillorship constituency in the FCT. From the results obtained from these elections, INEC is convinced that electronic results management will add great value to the transparency and credibility of elections in Nigeria“, it added.

While IReV was not electronic transmission of results, the portal had helped the agency to test three factors central to electronic transmission of results, including the efficacy of electronic results management, should the legal encumbrance be lifted. The position paper under reference revealed that INEC had used the IReV portal to test the security of its systems and the capacity of the national infrastructure to support future electronic transmission of results.

As it were, since August 2020, INEC has conducted elections and transmitted election results from 20 States and the FCT, covering 27 constituencies spread across 84 LGAs, 925 Wards and 14,296 Polling units involving 9,884,910. The conclusion drawn from these diverse pilots conducted since 2011 is that the country is ready for electronic transmission of results.

Meanwhile, a tweaked Electoral Act should also make for electronic accreditation of voters, based on biometric features which is the basis for allowing voters to cast their ballots, what INEC urgently requires is a legal framework that enables rather than constrains electronic transmission of results specifically, and full electronic voting generally.

The subsisting situation where manual accreditation supersedes biometric accreditation through electronic means, undermines the full benefits of the application of technology to elections.

Will the legislature, which has the jurisdictional purview of birthing the requisite legal framework play ball? Big question!