Election: Electronic Transmission Of Results Not Mandatory For INEC According To Section 60 – APC

Mr Dele Alake, Special Adviser on Media and Communications at the PCC, made the declaration in Abuja on Friday when he spoke at a news conference.

Alake said the transmission of election results was at the discretion of INEC, according to Section 60, sub-section 2 of the Electoral Act.

According to him, the Electoral Act 2022 does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.

He said, “The complaint over the electronic transmission of election results is not supported by law.

“Section 38 of the Electoral Act 2022 relied upon by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) to challenge the result of the Feb. 25 presidential election has nothing to do with the transmission of election results.

“Section 60, sub-section 2 of the Act deals with the transmission of results and it is at the discretion of INEC. The Act does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.

“In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced,’’ Alake stressed.

He added that what was important was the counting of votes in the presence of party agents and the hearing of voters.

Alake said it was absurd to insinuate that time variation in uploading results would cause a change in the figures.

“In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced,’’ he said.

He added that the news conference was to respond to both the candidates of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the LP, Mr Peter Obi, following their recent statements as regards the election results.

He described the efforts by the PDP, the LP and the NNPP to approach the court over the election results as a welcome development.