Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has stated that the Senate did not rejected the electronic transmission of election results during consideration of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
The social media was awash on Wednesday when information filtered claiming that the Senate had rejected electronic transmission of results.
Newsbuka reports that the consideration of the contentious amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the bill began at around 2:00 p.m. and continued until 6:26 p.m.
This further fueled online speculation that lawmakers had voted against mandatory electronic transmission of results.
Reports also suggested that the red chamber had shot down a proposal that would have required presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit results electronically from each polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real time, after signing and stamping the prescribed result forms.
Also, reports claimed that the Senate had instead retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that the presiding officer shall transfer results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner prescribed by the Commission.
But speaking shortly after the Senate passed the bill after a session that lasted for about four and a half hours, Akpabio said the interpretation was misleading, emphasising that the Senate did not remove electronic transmission from the law.
He said, “Distinguished colleagues, social media is already awash with reports claiming that the Senate has rejected electronic transmission of results. That is not true. What we did was retain the electronic transmission provision that has been in the Act and was used in 2022.”
We Didn’t Reject Electronic Transmission of Election Results ~ Akpabio
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