INEC Clarifies That Its Results Viewing Portal Is Not A Collation Or Transmission System
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified that its results viewing portal, known as IReV, is not a system for collating or transmitting election results. The INEC Director of ICT, Paul Omokore, made this clarification in his presentation at a two-day capacity workshop for journalists on Monday in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.
Omokore explained that IReV is a portal that allows the public to view the results of polling units (PUs) on form EC8A, which are uploaded using the INEC Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). He said that this does not mean that the results are electronically transmitted or tallied by the portal.
“Form EC8A is the result that we collated at the PUs. We use BVAS to snap this form and upload the same thing to the IReV portal for public viewing. This is not a collecting system. It does not tally a system. What it does is to snap the EC8A which is the result at the polling unit and upload the same to the public view. That is all,” he said.
He added that 70 per cent of the populace think that the portal has collected the figures, but this is not true. He said that only the presiding officers have collected all the scores of the parties, signed and stamped them on form EC8A, and then sent this same picture to the IReV for public viewing.
He also advised journalists and members of the public not to confuse uploading PUs’ results to IReV with electronic transmission of results. He said that from the inception of elections in Nigeria, results were transmitted manually, from the PUs to the collation centres.
He said that technology deployment had proven to be an effective tool in achieving free, fair and credible elections. He said that BVAS is used to ensure ‘one person, one vote’, while IReV is used to improve the openness and credibility of elections. He said that while challenges were eminent, INEC had put in extra efforts to ensure that they were mitigated.
The chairman of Partners for Electoral Reform, Ezenwa Nwagwu, in his lecture titled, ‘Ethical Dilemma in Election Reporting: Navigating Bias, Balance and Promoting Transparency,’ urged journalists to uphold accurate reporting. He said that the core issues in election reporting are independence, unbiased and accuracy reports by the media.
“Accurate and transparent report is the only cure for fake news, which is the responsibility of the media,” Nwagu said.
He advised the media to always investigate the reasons behind some news being presented to the media by people with biased minds on the electoral process and balance it with the provision of the laws.
