Politics
Electoral Act: Akpabio’s Senate has duped Nigerians – Kenneth Okonkwo
Kenneth Okonkwo, a member of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has criticised the Senate over the amendment of the Electoral Act, accusing it of undermining Nigeria’s democracy.
In a statement titled, “Nigerians are duped by the Senate,” which he shared on X on Tuesday, Okonkwo faulted the amendment to Section 60 of the Electoral Act that permits the electronic transmission of election results but allows manual collation where electronic transmission is deemed impossible.
He specifically criticised a proposal by Senator Mohammed Monguno, which provides that manually generated Form EC8A may be used for collation of results if electronic transmission cannot be carried out.
According to Okonkwo, the proviso weakens the intention of electronic transmission by making it non-mandatory.
Okonkwo argued that the amendment effectively legitimizes technical glitches during elections, noting that a similar justification was given by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2023 presidential election when electronic transmission reportedly failed.
Okonkwo suggested that the Senate was deliberately weakening electoral safeguards and urged Nigerians to resist what he described as an attempt to undermine democracy.
Okonkwo wrote: “Senator Munguno has just proposed a worse amendment to the controversial clause that rejected mandatory electronic transmission of results.
“He proposed a proviso that manually generated form EC8A should be used only for collation of results where electronic transmission is impossible. This is going back to square one where it is not mandatory to electronically transmit election results. Indeed, this is approving technical glitches in our elections because this means that when INEC claims that it cannot transmit as it did in 2023 presidential election, it has the power to use the manual results for collation.
“What Nigerians want is that electronic transmission is mandatory, and anytime it is impossible to transmit election results electronically from the polling unit, the election should be void and cancelled, and another election scheduled for another day.
“It is important to note that this is how the issue of the BVAS was treated. The provision requires that where the BVAS is not working for accreditation for any reason, the election is cancelled and rescheduled (see Section 47 (2)(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022).
“It is obvious that Nigerians must insist on their demand for mandatory electronic transmission of results without an option to use only the unverified manual results for collation or the integrity of our elections will be destroyed.
“This Senate is hell-bent on destroying our democracy and Nigerians must resist this.”
DAILY POST reports that the Senate had earlier on Tuesday amended Section 60 of the Electoral Act during an emergency plenary session.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio explained that under the amendment, presiding officers at polling units are required to electronically transmit election results to INEC’s Results Viewing Portal (IREV) after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped.
“The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units,” Akpabio said.
