Controversies have continued to trail the recently concluded presidential and senatorial elections which were held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the president-elect. However, leading opposing parties like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have since called for the cancellation of the election over the allegation that it was not free, fair, and credible.
Opposition parties also alleged that the presidential election results were not electronically transmitted in real time because the electoral umpire compromised the process.
Speaking on Arise News ahead of the March 18 gubernatorial elections, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the governorship candidate of the LP in Lagos state, claimed that the electoral laws state that an election can not be valid if the results are not electronically transmitted.
“Even in their laws, elections cannot be valid if they have not transmitted election results electronically. That’s why we went to court to get an injunction that says INEC must follow its own rules,” he said.
Claim: Elections can not be valid if results are not transmitted electronically
Verification
The CDD Election War Room checked to verify the claim and here is what we found.
Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022 makes provision for counting of votes at the polling unit. It provides that the presiding officer shall count the votes scored by each candidate at the polling unit, record them into a form to be prescribed by the Commission, and announce the results after the form must have been countersigned by the candidates or their polling agents.
Section 62 makes provision for the collation of election results. It provides that the presiding officer shall deliver the recorded and announced results along with election materials to such persons as may be prescribed by the Commission.
Furthermore, the Commission shall compile, maintain and update, on a continuous basis a register of election results to be known as the National Electronic Register of Election Results. This register shall be in an electronic format and kept in INEC headquarters.
Section 65 further states that the decision of the returning officer shall be final on issues relating to ballot papers and declaration of “scores of candidates and the return of a candidate”.
It however gives INEC seven days to review the declaration and return where the Commission determines that the said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or was made contrary to the provisions of the law, etc.
Furthermore, Clause 38 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022, which makes provision for the mode of transmitting election results, did not state that elections cannot be valid without electronically transmitting the results in real-time.
In January 2023, weeks before the election, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ruled that INEC can transmit results in any method it deems fit.
Verdict
The claim that it was stated in INEC laws that elections cannot be valid if results are not electronically transmitted is misleading. Findings show that the latest Electoral Act and Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022 did not explicitly state that an election where results are not electronically transmitted in real-time, is invalid. A competent court also ruled that INEC “is at liberty to prescribe the manner in which election results” would be transmitted.