IReV uploads different from results transmission for physical collation – Ex-INEC commissioner Okoye

Former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, on Tuesday, distinguished between transmitting election results to the next stage of collation and uploading polling unit results onto the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Mr Okoye, speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Tuesday, called on INEC to intensify public education on the distinction ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He said more education on key aspects of the electoral process was important to avert confusion as the nation heads to its general elections in a few months.

“So I think that the commission should do a lot to educate people aggressively on some of these issues because failure to understand these provisions could fuel confusion about the electoral process,” he said.

According to Mr Okoye, while section 60(3) of the Electoral Act 2026 provides for electronic transmission to IReV, section 60(5) separately addresses the transmission of results to the next level of collation.

INEC introduced the IReV technology in 2020 in its bid to make the process more transparent, and deployed it for the general elections for the first time in 2023.

However, contrary to INEC’s promise, only a fraction of the polling unit results were uploaded promptly. A large percentage of the results from the polling units came only after election day and after INEC had declared President Bola Tinubu the winner of the poll.

INEC would later explain that the system suffered a glitch preventing prompt uploading of the results. The explanation did little to convince many Nigerians that INEC did not manipulate the results during the downtime to suit the ruling All Progressives Congress. Two frontline presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, went on to challenge the election outcome up to the Supreme Court which affirmed Mr Tinubu’s victory.

Three and a half years after the election and with just three months before the next general elections cycle, INEC has yet to recover from the confidence crisis that resulted from the 2023 IReV delays.

Mr Okoye, whose time in office as INEC commissioner coincided with the introduction of the IReV tool and the 2023 IReV crisis backlash, said on Monday that the results on IReV were only for transparency, while the results used for collation were those transmitted by presiding officers and assistant presiding officers to the next level, where collation officers examine the original Form EC8A from each polling unit.

He also explained that the collation officer examines the results recorded on the physical form and resolves discrepancies where necessary.

Mr Okoye, who served as INEC commissioner between July 2018 and August 2023 (months after the 2023 election), said the distinction between the two processes was important to public understanding of elections and urged INEC to explain the relevant legal provisions more clearly.

‘Technology can malfunction’

Revisiting the 2023 elections on Monday, Mr Okoye noted that technical difficulties affected the real-time uploading of presidential election results.

He said INEC had prepared for the election and that the uploading of results for the House of Representatives had been progressing well before problems arose with the presidential election results.

“Technology can malfunction at any time. Technology can disappoint you,” he said.

He said the central problem was that the presidential election results were not uploaded in real time, rather than not being uploaded at all.

He added that the perception that the results had not been uploaded at all created a credibility problem for the election.

Mr Okoye also said the results were eventually uploaded.

He maintained that the experience demonstrated the importance of distinguishing between the electronic publication of results and the process used for their collation.

Political elite, not electoral laws, are the problem

Asked if the problem was the law, Mr Okoye said Nigeria’s electoral challenges could not be resolved simply by introducing new laws, since political actors who benefit from electoral manipulation did not want elections to be free and fair.

“The law alone cannot conduct elections. Even if we amend the law 100 times, it may not conduct elections. The human element is also very important. It is very, very fundamental,” he said.

He maintained that the Electoral Acts of 2010, 2022 and 2026 could provide a basis for conducting credible elections, but that their effectiveness depended on how political actors behaved.

Mr Okoye, lamented that “what is missing is that at each point, those who benefit from election rigging and election manipulation want to manipulate the process”.

According to the former INEC commissioner, political parties often fail to campaign on clear ideological positions and instead focus on ensuring that voters’ choices do not count.

He said the practice of vote-buying had intensified and become more sophisticated.

Drawing on his experience observing the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, he said those involved in vote-buying had adopted methods designed to monitor how voters cast their ballots.

“They have gone digital, they have upgraded their act, they have optimised the way they do vote-buying,” he said.

He said those involved sought to control the positioning of voting cubicles so they could see how voters marked their ballots before directing them to collect money.

Mr Okoye stressed that he had not seen anyone prosecuted for vote-buying in connection with the two elections, despite the deployment of security agents.

He urged Nigerians, the media and civil society organisations to look beyond INEC when assessing the credibility of elections, arguing that political actors also bear responsibility for electoral failures.

“INEC has paid staff, but they are limited to polling units. The poll workers include corps members and students of tertiary institutions, university lecturers and professors, and government workers,” Mr Okoye said. “Elections are a multi-stakeholder venture.”

Electoral law amended ahead of 2027 elections

The Electoral Act 2022 was repealed and replaced by the Electoral Act 2026, signed by President Bola Tinubu in February, following weeks of controversy over electronic transmission of election results and protests at the National Assembly.

READ ALSO: 2027 Elections: 29,314 PVCs uncollected in Taraba – INEC

The Senate initially rejected a proposal to make real-time electronic transmission of polling-unit results to IReV mandatory, prompting protests by civil society groups and other stakeholders.

Following further deliberations, the final law provided for electronic transmission but retained a fallback: where electronic transmission fails or becomes impossible, the signed Form EC8A serves as the primary source for collation and declaration of results.

Mr Okoye’s argument that INEC needs to educate voters about the law and how results are processed comes as preparations for the 2027 general elections gather pace.

INEC’s revised timetable scheduled the presidential and National Assembly elections for 16 January 2027, with governorship and state assembly elections to follow on 6 February 2027.

Campaigns for the presidential and National Assembly elections have since started.