Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide Nigerians with a clear protocol showing how election results move from polling units to the point of declaration.

Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Friday, Itodo said greater transparency in the results management process would enable citizens to monitor elections effectively and strengthen public confidence in the electoral system.

He said, “The public needs to understand what is the journey of results from the polling units to when declarations are made. And only when they understand that can they monitor and provide the oversight that is required to protect their votes in the elections and in the 2027 elections.”

Itodo explained that while Section 60(3) of the Electoral Act makes the transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) compulsory, the public still lacks information about what happens before results appear on the portal.

He said, “When polling is concluded on election day and the hard copy result sheets are completed, the results do not hit the IREV automatically. There is a validation process that takes place at the back end before those results make it to the IREV.”

According to him, Nigerians should understand that the scanned result sheet uploaded by polling officials first passes through a validation stage before appearing on IREV.

He added, “This is something the public needs to know because there’s a validation process that takes place. So once the polling officials take the scanned result sheet, it doesn’t hit the IREV directly. At the back end, there’s a validation that takes place.”

Itodo also highlighted what he described as three separate result tracks now existing for every polling unit: the physical result sheet, the electronic EC8A entered into the BVAS device, and the scanned copy uploaded to IREV.

He questioned how discrepancies between the three records would be resolved.

He said, “The big question is what happens if there is a discrepancy between these three different result tracks. We do not know which one will be used to resolve this.”

The Yiaga Africa Executive Director also urged INEC to publish additional collation forms beyond the polling unit level to allow the public to follow the movement of results throughout the collation process.

He said, “Why don’t we have the EC8Bs, which is the result collation form for the ward and the local government collation? Because the public needs to know and follow the journey of the results from the polling unit to the ward and to the local government level.”

Calling for greater openness around the commission’s technology, Itodo said the public deserves answers about the validation process and the safeguards protecting election results.

He said, “If you say validation, who is validating? What has been validated? What happens if there’s a discrepancy? These are the kinds of information. The back end must have an audit trail. People should have access to those audit trails. That’s it.” (Arise News)