Era of election result manipulation over, portal repeatedly attacked – INEC

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured that the days of manipulation of election results are over in Nigeria.

 

The Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu spoke on Friday in Abuja at the Launch of the Election Results Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) Report on Electronic Transmission of Results organised by Yiaga Africa.

 

Yakubu noted that the new Electoral Act, 2022, empowered it to adopt electronic means for both accreditation and results management.

 

He said the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) had increased confidence in the electoral process.

 

The BVAS, Yakubu explained, identifies and accredits voters through fingerprint and facial recognition, as well as capture and upload images of the Polling Unit result form (Form EC8A) to the IReV portal.

 

The chairman said the Electoral Act, administrative measures and technology have helped the commission to drastically tackle major problems.

 

He listed falsification of scores at Polling Units, falsification of number of accredited voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results and computational errors.

 

Others are swapping of result sheets, forging result sheets, snatching and destruction of result sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, making declaration and return while collation is in progress, and poor recordkeeping.

 

“The commission has increased the transparency and confidence of the public in its election result management processes.

 

“I can confidently say that the days of wanton manipulation of election results are over; yet, the commission is not resting on its oars.”

 

The electoral confirmed 128,994 accounts have been opened by IReV users since it was launched in August 2020.

 

Yakubu hinted that INEC had faced repeated attempts by hackers to breach its cyber security system for the portal but all failed.