Bayelsa: INEC Assures of Electronic Voting

Emma Okonji and Nosa Alekhuogie

The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured Nigerians that it would implement the process of electronic transmission of results in the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa State.

The assurance was, however, contrary to insinuations making the round that INEC might insist on manual collation of election results in the exercise.

Bayelsa State INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effanga, who gave the assurance yesterday while speaking on the Morning Show of ARISE NEWS Channels, said he was shocked to read from online news report that INEC said it would no longer carry out electronic transmission of election results in the forth-coming election in Bayelsa State.

He therefore, called on Nigerians to disregard such information, which he said, was completely false and far from the truth.

According to him, “INEC will capture the election results and upload same, real-time on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, from the polling units. The Police will also beef up security during the election with the deployment of over 27,000 policemen to be spread across all the polling units in the state,” he said.     

Effanga emphasised that INEC would leave no stone unturned in order to guarantee a successful electoral exercise, saying, “We are doing everything within our power to ensure everything goes smoothly.”

He confirmed that there was ample time to ensure materials and personnel reach the designated locations ahead of the election, and also disclosed essential details about the electoral setup, adding that there were 2,244 polling units accommodating 16 political parties and a substantial voter base of 1.056 million in Bayelsa State.

The INEC commissioner assured Bayelsa people that all polls would open as scheduled and affirmed that thorough training and meetings had commenced with various stakeholders.

Highlighting the ongoing process of handing over the voters’ register to the participating political parties, Effanga said, “On Saturday, the mock exercise, where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be used to do mock accreditations to see how it works and see the transmission of results on the INEC Result viewing portal (IReV).”

Addressing other controversies going on, Effanga said nothing had changed with how the elections were going to be conducted, stating that it would not be different from how it was conducted in the general election.

He further revealed that during the meeting, which was held a few days back, he was shocked that out of all the political parties, which were present, none of them said they had used the IReV or attempted to see how it works.

Further addressing concerns regarding the electoral process, Effanga elaborated on the IReV, saying, “The IReV is a portal, where polling unit results are uploaded. It is not a collation center or a device but rather a platform where individuals can view results from individual polling units.”

Effanga also addressed previous technical glitches and reassured the people that measures were in place to prevent a recurrence.

He acknowledged past challenges during the presidential elections but emphasised that subsequent elections saw improved processes, while ensuring smooth result uploads to the IReV in the forth-coming Bayelsa Election.

“There is the inter-agency consultative committee on election security, which at the state level is chaired by the resident electoral commissioner and co-chaired by the commissioner of police in the state. The commissioner of police has assured everyone about their readiness and capability to protect people during this election and we hope that will be the case,” he said.