2023: INEC Chairman Reveals Why Politicians Can No Longer Manipulate Election Results

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has revealed why politicians can no longer manipulate election results in Nigeria.

INEC Curbs Manipulation Of Election Results

The INEC Chairman spoke on Friday in Abuja at the Launch of the Election Results Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) Report on Electronic Transmission of Results organized by Yiaga Africa.

According to him, the introduction of technology and the provisions of the new electoral act will forestall and enhance the credibility of elections in the country.

Yakubu said that the new Electoral Act, 2022, empowered INEC to adopt electronic means for both accreditation and results management.

He said the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) had increased confidence in the electoral process.

Yakubu explained that the BVAS identifies and accredits voters through fingerprint and facial recognition, as well as capture and upload images of the Polling Unit result form (Form EC8A) to the IReV portal.

The chairman said the Electoral Act, administrative measures and technology have helped the commission to drastically tackle major problems.

He listed falsification of scores at Polling Units, falsification of number of accredited voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results and computational errors.

Others are swapping of result sheets, forging result sheets, snatching and destruction of result sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, making declaration and return while collation is in progress, and poor recordkeeping.

“It is clear that armed with an improved electoral act, administrative procedures and requisite technology, the commission has increased the transparency and confidence of the public in its election result management processes,” he said.

“I can confidently say that the days of wanton manipulation of election results are over. Yet, the commission is not resting on its oars, knowing that it must remain several steps ahead of those who seek to undermine the system.

“The importance of IReV to the transparency of result management is obvious. I call on all stakeholders to support the commission to continue to work to improve IReV and the entire result management system towards the 2023 general election, which will be far more extensive than what we have done so far.

“Apart from voting, result management is easily the most critical aspect of election administration. Indeed, for most politicians, it is perhaps more important than voting. We constantly change result sheet colour because politicians like to produce their own result during election.”

KanyiDaily recalls that INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu also disclosed that its result viewing (IReV) portal came under attack from hackers across different parts of the world.