Ensuring Electronic Result Submission is Effective

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Few reforms promise to restore public confidence in Nigeria’s elections like electronic transmission of results. In a country where ballot snatching, result manipulation, electoral violence and manual collation have too often cast shadows over the people’s will, e-transmission offers speed, transparency and traceability. Yet technology alone cannot guarantee credibility. To make e-transmission truly work, Nigeria must get the fundamentals right — legal clarity, infrastructure, training and trust.

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Prior to the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, took bold steps with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV. These innovations were meant to reduce human interference by uploading polling unit results directly to a central server in real time. The promise was simple: once votes are counted at the polling unit, the results are electronically transmitted and publicly viewable, limiting opportunities for tampering during collation.

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However, experience has shown that the gap between policy and practice can be wide. Real or man-made technical glitches, network failures, inadequate training of ad hoc staff, and late-night uploads have weakened public confidence. For e-transmission to succeed, Nigeria must first invest in robust digital infrastructure. Reliable internet connectivity in rural and riverine areas is not optional; it is essential. Partnerships with telecom providers should be formalised well before elections, with contingency plans to prevent system overloads on election day.

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Also, there must be unambiguous legal backing. The Electoral Act should clearly define the status of electronically transmitted results vis-à-vis manually collated ones. Where discrepancies occur, the law must specify which prevails. Ambiguity breeds litigation; clarity builds confidence. Political parties, media and civil society must be part of these reforms to ensure broad consensus. Reforms are too important to be left to politicians alone.

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Cyber security must be treated as a component of national security. Election servers should be protected with world-class encryption and subjected to independent stress tests before deployment. Nigeria cannot afford a scenario where doubts about hacking or data manipulation overshadow the credibility of an election. Transparency is key: publishing audit reports and allowing party agents to monitor uploads in real time would demystify the process.

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Training is another pillar. Ad hoc staff, many of them young graduates, must be thoroughly trained and tested before election day. Mock elections should be conducted nationwide to simulate real-time transmission challenges. A technology is only as effective as the hands that operate it.

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Public education also matters. Voters must understand how e-transmission works. When citizens can log on and see polling unit results themselves, rumours lose power. Trust grows not from secrecy, but from openness. Citizens must follow the process from start to finish. Apathy offers election riggers a field day, and must be avoided.

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The recently-passed Electoral Act Amendment Bill may not be perfect, but if properly operated, it can still produce credible results.

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