INEC Not Required to Upload Results in Real Time, Says PEPC

The Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) has upheld the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) authority to establish its own election procedures, including the decision not to transmit real-time results for the 2023 presidential election. This ruling comes in response to a request by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, to invalidate President Bola’s victory in the election.

Led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, the tribunal emphasized that even if INEC had incorporated electronic result transmission as part of its guidelines for the election, it would not be held accountable for failing to do so. The tribunal clarified that the non-transmission of results electronically did not constitute sufficient grounds for election result cancellation.

The tribunal further clarified that the envisioned electronic voting in the electoral law pertained to the use of the Biamodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). Additionally, it pointed out that the Electoral Act of 2022 did not include provisions for electronic transmission of election results. Under Section 52 and Section 65 of the Electoral Act, INEC retains the discretion to determine the manner in which results can be transmitted, and it cannot be compelled to do so electronically.