The coast seems to be getting clearer for Nigeria to attain the much talked about electronic voting which many believe would improve the credibility of the country’s electoral process.
This is as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has introduced a dedicated public portal, the INEC RESULT VIEWING (IReV) that will enable Nigerians to view polling unit results real-time as the voting ends on election day.
According to the commission, this move is to further strengthen transparency in the election result management system which has remained a major source of mistrust in Nigeria’s electoral process.
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The commission, however, emphasised that the IReV does not constitute electronic collation of results as the collation of election results shall remain as provided for by law; a manual process of completion of relevant result sheets and their upwards collation until the final results are determined.
Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman of information and voter education committee, disclosed this in a statement at the end of the commission’s meeting in Abuja on Thursday.
Okoye said the innovation would commence from the Nasarawa Central State constituency bye-election scheduled for Saturday, August 8, 2020, after which it will be extended to the Edo and Ondo governorship elections as well as all subsequent elections.
He expressed the hope that the innovation would improve the transparency in election result management and further consolidate public confidence in the electoral process.
Okoye appealed to the public to make judicious use of this facility as the commission looks forward to continuing to work with stakeholders to improve the quality of electoral services in the country.
