By NAOMI SHARANG

The Senate has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacks the capacity to conduct e-voting at present.

The upper chamber also clarified that electronic transmission of election results in real time does not translate to e-voting, as being peddled in some quarters.

Chairman, Senate Ad hoc Panel to Review the 2026 Electoral Bill, Sen. Adeniyi Adegbonmire, made the clarifications on Thursday, when he appeared on a programme in Abuja.

Adegbonmire equally maintained that INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) not an e-voting platform.

“It is a platform where the election results that have been manually counted and declared at the polling units are uploaded and publicised,” he clarified.

The senator explained the difference between electronic transmission of election results in real time and e-voting system.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the senate had constituted the ad hoc committee to review the report of its Committee on Electoral Matters, harmonise divergent views and address grey areas identified during the exercise.

Speaking on the decision of the senate, Adegbonmire explained that Nigeria had not transitioned to an e-voting system, contrary to what some people had insinuated or what some media platforms had reported.

He said: “People need to understand what real-time means. Real-time transmission can only happen if INEC adopts an e-voting system.

“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.

“This is the misconception that the media has brought into play. The provision you keep emphasising says the presiding officer will first fill the result manually in Form EC8A.

“It is the Form EC8A that has been filled manually and will be transmitted to IReV. If we change ‘transmit’ to ‘upload’ in the Electoral Bill, 2026, will it change anything? The answer is No,” he said.

Adegbonmire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, further explained the misconceptions.

He said that the misconceptions about IReV should be corrected, considering its implications for the country’s peaceful co-existence.

The lawmaker pointed out that IReV “is not a voting platform. Rather, it is a platform meant to publicise election results already declared by the presiding officers at polling units across the federation.

“It is important, first of all, to understand what IReV does because there is a lot of misconceptions about it or deliberate misrepresentation of what it stands for.

“The senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections. So, what is IReV? It is a software developed by INEC to publicise results by INEC.

“IReV is not an e-voting platform as some people think. This is the misinformation some people are peddling.

“They keep saying when I want to see my vote. But in reality, IReV is a platform meant to publicise election results already declared at the polling units.

“This is not an emotional argument. I heard people say the version of the House of Representatives should be adopted.

“It is a sheer misconception. What does the version say? It simply says the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the result from each polling unit to the IReV portal in real time.

“And that such transmission shall be done after Form EC8A has been signed by the presiding officer and countersigned by the candidate or polling agent at the polling unit,” the lawmaker explained. (NAN)

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