Chigozie Nwachukwu Esq, a Nigerian lawyer and advocate for election integrity and good governance, has urged the Nigerian Senate to approve the real-time electronic transmission of election results in order to save the 2027 elections.
A proposal to require the electronic transmission of election results was rejected by the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, causing controversy and criticism from civil society organisations and opposition parties.
Senators voted to keep the current clause allowing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to choose the mode of transmission during the debate of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Under the rejected amendment, presiding officers would have had to sign and stamp Form EC8A before electronically transmitting the results from each polling station to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-time.
Senators countered that this might put elections at risk of preventable legal issues and be problematic, particularly in places with little or nonexistent network access.
In a statement released to reporters on Friday, Nwachukwu responded, saying the Senate’s ruling had “caused widespread despair and loss of confidence in the 2027 electoral process.”
He claims that the majority of Nigerians think that mandatory real-time results transmission would prevent situations similar to those that occurred in Rivers State and numerous other regions of the country during the 2023 presidential election, where there were numerous accusations of election results manipulation.
This move has raised serious concerns about the integrity and transparency of Nigeria’s 2027 elections and has paved the way for a potential pre-election clash between civil society organisations and opposition parties against the ruling All Progressive Congress government in the country’s already precarious political environment.
There is scarcely any region in Nigeria that is not covered by telephone and Internet networks, therefore many people believe that the justifications put up by the Senate leadership for this denial are weak and self-serving.
Many really make reference to the fact that even the ruling party is currently using computerised means to register new members throughout Nigeria, but they only make token efforts to safeguard the Nigerian people’s electoral will.
“This is completely unacceptable, and in order to prevent escalating tensions that could throw the 2027 elections off course, I implore the Senate to honourably revert their current stance by reintroducing the mandatory transmission of results into the 2027 bill.”
The Senate now has the power to either save or destroy the 2027 elections’ integrity quotient. The entire globe is observing.”.”