2023 Elections: INEC Gives Clarification On IReV Access Issues

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified issues experienced by Nigerians in accessing the Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

Against speculations, the commission, in a press release on Sunday (today), said the IReV was not under attack as claimed in some quarters.

The statement dated February 26th signed by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the commission would take full responsibility for the problems and regretted the distress they had caused the candidates, political parties and electorates.

Okoye explained that the problems experienced are due to technical hitches related to scaling up of the IReV from a platform for managing off-season state elections to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.

He reiterated that the challenges were not due to intrusion of any kind. Okoye said the commission regretted the setback, primarily because of the importance of IReV in its results management process and noted that unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady.

“The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, state elections to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.

“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems and that the IReV remains well-secured,” the statement noted.

INEC again assured that its technical team was working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, adding that users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.

The commission further assured Nigerians that results from the polling units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal.

It said these results could not be tampered with, and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation would be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.