Guber polls: INEC promises posting real-time results on IReV

With the November 11, 2023, governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states approaching, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that polling unit results will be updated in real-time on the Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

Mary Nkem, INEC’s Acting Director of Voter Education and Publicity, made this announcement during a discussion on election security on Channels Television’s People’s Townhall in Abuja on Sunday night.

Nkem mentioned that all the issues faced during the earlier general elections this year have been resolved. She also highlighted INEC’s extensive preparations to ensure the timely delivery of sensitive materials to polling units, including the accommodation of ad hoc officers near polling units a day before the election.

Read also:PDP urges INEC for timely delivery of election materials in guber polls

“Rather than people moving from the local government headquarters to the various polling units, they are moved closer to the PUs (polling units) where they are going to work. So, I can assure you that God willing, we will deploy early,” Nkem said.

She revealed that sensitive materials would be transferred from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) vaults to Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo by Monday.

The Commission also conducted a mock accreditation exercise three weeks ago in all three states to verify the BVAS functionality, voter accreditation, and result uploading on IReV, and these were executed effectively.

When asked if the challenges with IReV during the 2023 presidential election had been addressed for the upcoming governorship polls, the INEC official confirmed, “Sure, we had a post-election review, and all of these things that went wrong were identified.”

Nkem also added, “Well, there was a glitch, technology (glitch), and it will interest you (to know) that if you go to the IReV now, all those results are on the IReV. It is just that they could not be uploaded in real-time, but they were uploaded later on, and we can assure Nigerians.”

This assurance, she added, was because “even the mock exercise that we conducted, within two hours, all the results were on the IReV”.

She urged all political parties fielding candidates in the upcoming elections to maintain records of polling unit results for collation monitoring.