Clarify Results Transmission Before 2027, Osun Gov’ship Polls, Yiaga Africa Tells INEC

A civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa, has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to promptly publish a clear protocol on electronic transmission of election results ahead of the 15 th August Osun governorship election and the 2027 general election.

The group said the protocol should explain the complete journey of election results from the polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, detailing the roles of officials, the purpose of each stage and the expected duration of the backend validation process.

It also called for an independent assessment of the upgraded Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and IReV platforms.

The recommendations were contained in Yiaga Africa’s policy brief titled, “Securing the Votes: Electronic Transmission and Collation of Election Results under Nigeria’s New Legal Framework,” presented in Abuja yesterday.

Presenting the document, Yiaga Africa executive director, Samson Itodo, said the Electoral Act 2026 had made electronic transmission of polling unit results to the IReV portal mandatory, transforming the platform from a public viewing portal into an official legal record.

He urged INEC to publish ward and local government collation results on the IReV and fulfil its promise to upload polling unit accreditation figures alongside Form EC8A.

Itodo also asked the commission to clearly state which result should prevail in cases of discrepancies between the physical result sheet, the scanned copy on IReV, and the electronically transmitted result, while establishing a transparent procedure for resolving such conflicts before collation continues.

He further recommended that INEC redraft relevant sections of its election guidelines, develop a dedicated manual on results management, conduct publicly observable mock exercises, disclose technical specifications of its technology and formally gazette its regulations in line with the Electoral Act.

According to him, the proposed reforms require no amendment to the law and can be implemented before the Osun governorship election and the 2027 polls.

Yiaga Africa also urged political parties, candidates, election observers, the media, and citizens to maintain vigilance and demand a transparent, accountable, and verifiable results management process.

Speaking at the event, the European Union Programme Manager for Democracy and Governance, Laolu Olawunmi, said public confidence in elections depended largely on how results were managed.

She said, “Election results management is the stage where public trust is either built or broken.”

Olawunmi stressed that technology should strengthen transparency rather than replace accountability, urging INEC to improve stress testing, upload capacity, practical simulations and training for election officials before future elections.

She added that party agents and election observers should be granted meaningful access to collation centres to enhance public confidence in the process.

Earlier in his welcome address, INEC National Commissioner Abdullahi Zuru expressed confidence in the commission’s preparations, saying that elections conducted after the 2023 general election had shown significant improvements.

He said the recent governorship elections and the FCT Area Council polls demonstrated that the commission had overcome many of the challenges experienced in previous elections.

In response to Yiaga Africa’s proposal for a mock exercise, Zuru disclosed that INEC was already considering conducting a mock presidential election well ahead of the 2027 polls.

Also speaking, the National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Yusuf Dantalle, said the current Electoral Act still required reforms to guarantee credible elections.

He noted that many political parties were forced to adopt consensus candidates in recent primaries due to the high cost of elections, adding that IPAC would continue engaging stakeholders to push for democratic reforms after reviewing the electoral process.