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NIGERIANS must have been amused, if not befuddled, by the recent statement attributed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), indicating that its results viewing portal is to enhance election transparency and not a result collation or transmission system. The INEC director of ICT, Paul Omokore, gave what was termed a ‘clarification’ in his presentation entitled, “The role of BVAS, IReV for Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo governorship elections”, which was delivered at a two-day capacity workshop for journalists in Akwanga, the headquarters of Akwanga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. In that presentation, Omokore called on journalists and members of the public not to confuse the uploading of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) with electronic transmission of results. According to him, the INEC Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is only used to upload pictures of polling unit results on form EC8A to IReV, which does not translate to electronic transmission of results.

Truth be told, this official position on the function and usefulness of the IReV portal during elections, onstensibly meant to clarify issues pertaining to the contribution of IReV to the realisation of transparent and fair elections in the country, ended up further polluting the discussion. This is because Omokore was widely reported as emphasising that the IReV portal was not a collecting or collating portal or meant to represent electronic transmission of results without him telling Nigerians what exactly INEC wanted the IReV portal to represent or what it wanted to designate it as. According to Omokore, the “INEC Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is only used to upload pictures of polling unit results on form EC8A to IReV, which does not translate to electronic transmission of results. Form EC8A is the result that we collate at the polling units.

“We use BVAS to snap this form and upload the same thing to the IReV portal for public viewing. This is not a collecting system. It does not tally a system. What it does is to snap the EC8A which is the result at the polling unit and upload the same to the public view. That is all. I know that 70 percent of the populace think that the others have collected the figures. No! All it does is snapping the EC8A that the presiding officers have collected with all the scores of the parties signed and stamped and then we send this same picture to the IReV for public viewing. That is all. So, it is not a collating system.”

Pray, if all elections take place at the polling units and results from all polling units are to be snapped and uploaded unto the IReV portal for viewing by the public, would it not be possible for everybody concerned in the outcome of the elections to be able to tally the overall results from the results of the polling units uploaded to and made available on the IReV portal? And would this not be the way to really advance transparency in the elections and get the public to be able to follow results in real time? Why then is INEC not making the IReV portal the essential pivot and standard of its conduct of elections if it is truly desirous of transparent and fair elections? Is it not ridiculous that months after the 2023 general election, INEC is yet to have all the results on the IReV portal for the public to be able to follow and verify what the true results of the elections were? And is it not disturbing that even in preparation for new off-season elections, INEC is already seeking to undermine confidence in the usefulness of the IReV portal by trying to muddle and cast aspersion on its significance?

We believe that the use of BVAS by INEC does not necessarily advance transparency without the accompanying uploading of results from polling units to the IReV portal, as shown by continuing problems with the 2023 general election and the general perception that INEC failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians on the elections by not being able to upload results from the polling units to the IReV portal. This is why INEC ought to be more forthcoming and not foggy about the importance and significance of the IReV portal, especially as it prepares for the forthcoming off-season elections. INEC must know that a major problem confronting it is the lack of real commitment to using the IReV portal to upload results from all polling units in order to ensure transparency and give the public the opportunity to be able to follow the sequence of results in real time on the portal.

If you want to reduce post-election litigation, you have to get the process right. INEC has a lot of work to do because of its credibility deficit. Public trust is key. (Sunday PUNCH)

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