The Nigerian Senate has clarified that the real-time electronic transmission of election results does not equate to electronic voting (e-voting), addressing widespread misconceptions amid ongoing debates over reforms to the Electoral Act ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In an appearance on Arise News Channel on Thursday, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Panel reviewing the 2026 Electoral Bill and also Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, emphasized that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) currently lacks the infrastructure and capacity to implement full e-voting nationwide.
Adegbonmire stressed that the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is strictly a platform for publicizing results that have already been manually counted and declared at polling units, not a tool for casting or counting votes electronically.
“People need to understand what real-time means. Real-time transmission can only happen if INEC adopts an e-voting system,” he stated.
“For now, INEC does not have the capability for e-voting. Maybe in two or three years, we can adopt e-voting. But as of today, INEC has not put an e-voting system in place.”
He faulted media reports and public claims suggesting the Senate had rejected IReV for the 2027 polls, describing them as misinformation with potential to undermine national peace.
“The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections,” Adegbonmire explained.
“IReV is software developed by INEC to publicise results already declared by presiding officers at polling units across the federation. It is not an e-voting platform as some people think.”
The senator highlighted that results are first recorded manually on Form EC8A at polling units, signed by the presiding officer and countersigned by party agents where available, before any electronic upload or transmission occurs. Changing terminology from “transmit” to “upload” in the proposed bill, he noted, would not alter the fundamental manual process.
Adegbonmire pointed to Nigeria’s logistical realities as a key reason for caution on mandatory real-time requirements.
He cited examples from his home state of Ondo, where voting start times vary significantly due to transportation challenges, including long distances and riverine areas accessible only by boat. In some locations, voting might not begin until late afternoon, with counting extending into the night.
“If we mandate real-time transmission without accounting for these differences, it could spark unnecessary controversies,” he warned.
“If someone claims results were declared at 2:00 p.m. but uploaded at 7:00 p.m., assumptions of rigging could arise—even if delays stem from network issues or genuine logistical hurdles.”
The clarifications come as the Senate’s ad-hoc panel, led by Adegbonmire, works to review and harmonize views on the Electoral Bill, including provisions for result transmission.
Recent Senate deliberations on the bill have seen back-and-forth amendments, with initial rejections of mandatory real-time uploads giving way to approvals allowing electronic transmission while permitting manual fallbacks in cases of technical failures.
Adegbonmire urged careful reporting on these issues to avoid inflaming tensions, noting that IReV displays results for public transparency but does not replace manual collation or enable voters to “see their vote” in real time.
