INEC rules out electronic transmission of results in Kogi, Bayelsa guber polls

The Independent National Electronic Commission (INEC) has ruled out electronic transmission of results in the forth-coming Kogi and Bayelsa State gubernatorial elections, while insisting that manual transmission would be adopted in both elections.

The commission have come under increased pressure from political stakeholders, to jettison manual voting and adopt electronic transmission of results for future elections in the country, due to alleged wide-spread flaws which characterised the 2019 general elections.

But speaking in an interview with Business Day Thursday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press secretary to the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission was not considering electronic transmission of results for both governorship elections because it was not ready for it.

According to him, “There would be no electronic transmission of result in the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections; it would still be manual because we are not ready for it.”

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Oyekanmi, however, assured that the commission would strive to conduct a credible election that would be accepted to all stakeholders.

“We have released guild lines for both elections. I can tell you that there would not be postponement and the commission would conduct a free and fair election. INEC doesn’t rig elections; it is not true,” Oyekanmi said.

Stakeholders are of the view that electronic voting and transmission were necessary to check the controversy and electoral fraud in the nation’s electoral system.

In the presidential election, the candidate of the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, said that results of the 2019 presidential election were electronically transmitted to a central server which showed that he won the election.

This claim has, however, been refuted by INEC which insisted that the commission had no server, while 2019 general elections results were not transmitted electronically.

Speaking further, Oyekanmi said the commission would partner with the Nigeria Police Force to prosecute electoral offenders, adding that 58 suspects had been arrested in connection with several offences in the 2019 general elections.

“We are working with the police authorities to prosecute all those arrested in the last general election; don’t forget that it is the police that made these arrests.

“But they would be prosecuted in their states, where they committed the crime. We would not bring them to one central location, contrary to what people are saying,” Oyekanmi added.