Nigeria’s electoral body has moved to dampen expectations of a live, “real-time” vote tally for this Saturday’s local elections in Abuja, following what it described as misleading media reports. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a clarification on Wednesday, stating that while results will be transmitted electronically, the process is not “simultaneous” with the casting of ballots.”The use of ‘real-time’ implies a simultaneous or live feed of votes as they are cast, which is not the procedure provided for in the legal framework,” said Adedayo Oketola, Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman.
The Technical Distinction
The clarification follows an inspection tour by the new INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, in which some outlets suggested he had promised a live broadcast of incoming data.The Commission outlined the actual three-step sequence that must occur before any data hits the public portal:
Manual Counting: Votes are counted and recorded on paper (Form EC8A) at the polling unit.
Verification: Results are signed by party agents and presiding officers.
Electronic Upload: The paper result is scanned or photographed via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and uploaded to the IReV portal. “Misquoting the chairman on technical procedures can lead to unnecessary public agitation,” the statement warned, emphasizing that the protocol has remained consistent since 2022.
High Stakes for Transparency
The issue of result transmission is a sensitive one in Nigeria. During the 2023 General Election, glitches in the IReV portal led to widespread protests and legal challenges, with critics arguing that delays in electronic uploads created opportunities for manual tampering during collation. Prof. Amupitan, who took over the role in late 2025, has been under pressure to prove that the technology is now robust enough to handle the FCT polls, seen as a “dry run” for the 2027 General Elections.
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