KDI Urges INEC to Enhance Electoral Transparency Through Digital Reforms

Folalumi Alaran in abuja

A civil society organisation, Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enhance electoral transparency through comprehensive digital and procedural reforms in election result management.

The recommendations were presented in Abuja on Friday during the public launch of the Ballot Integrity Report by KDI’s Team Lead, Bukola Idowu. The report highlighted systemic challenges in Nigeria’s electoral process and proposed solutions to strengthen integrity and public confidence.

Among its key recommendations, the report urged INEC to upgrade Form EC8 by pre-recording the number of registered voters to prevent discrepancies at polling units and collation centres. It also emphasized the need for a rigorous verification process at each collation stage to identify and rectify arithmetic errors before finalising results.

Additionally, the report proposed, “ A backend-generated accreditation summary be attached to Form EC8A and uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal to prevent alterations in accredited voter numbers during collation. Other recommendations included: Allowing result uploads beyond the polling unit level to enable real-time tracking at ward, local government, and state collation levels. Maintaining a publicly accessible database even after elections to enable comparison of results across collation stages. Reinstating the overvoting confirmation feature on the IReV portal, which was removed after the 2023 off-cycle elections.

“ Creating a dedicated online platform before elections where citizens, political parties, and observers can report irregularities directly to INEC for timely resolution. Disqualifying officials found guilty of result manipulation or mismanagement from future electoral duties.

The report noted that despite technological advancements such as the BVAS and IReV, challenges such as voter registration mismatches, missing ballots, over-voting, and arithmetic errors continue to affect election credibility. Referencing the Edo and Ondo off-cycle governorship elections, it cited instances where INEC-declared results did not align with figures on the IReV portal, raising concerns about data integrity.

To address these issues, the report recommended amendments to the Electoral Act to enhance result management and introduce stricter penalties for electoral malpractice. It also proposed mandatory digital collation for elections with over 500,000 registered voters to improve accuracy and transparency. Other recommendations included: Standardising result announcement timelines to prevent delays that could create opportunities for manipulation. Establishing automatic INEC review triggers if voter turnout exceeds 90% or if significant discrepancies between IReV results and collation centre figures arise.

Speaking on the report’s findings, Bukola Idowu acknowledged improvements in IReV’s result upload speed compared to the 2023 general elections but pointed out that inadequate training of INEC’s ad hoc staff often led to arithmetic errors.

“In Edo State, for instance, the report identified approximately 29,000 unaccounted votes, raising concerns about result accuracy,” he noted.

Idowu further emphasized the need for a flawless process in the 2027 general elections, stating that Nigerians expect elections where their votes determine outcomes, rather than legal proceedings.

Delivering a keynote address on “Protecting the Vote: Ensuring Electoral Integrity Through Credible Result Management,” Professor Adele Jinadu acknowledged that elections are complex and prone to human errors. He stressed that while some mistakes are inevitable, vigilance is necessary to prevent deliberate manipulation. He advocated for active citizen involvement in election monitoring at polling unit levels to safeguard electoral integrity.

“People must organise themselves at ward and polling unit levels to ensure elections are conducted transparently,” Jinadu said.

The recommendations in the Ballot Integrity Report underscore the need for INEC to adopt technological and procedural improvements to enhance the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral system ahead of future elections.