‘Back To Square One, Legitimizing Technical Glitches’ – Okonkwo Faults Senate’s Electoral Act Amendment

A member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has criticised the Senate over the amendment of the Electoral Act, accusing lawmakers of undermining Nigeria’s democratic process.

Okonkwo made his position known in a statement titled, “Nigerians are duped by the Senate,” shared on his 𝕏 handle on Tuesday, where he faulted the amendment to Section 60 of the Electoral Act.

The amendment permits the electronic transmission of election results but allows manual collation where electronic transmission is deemed impossible.

Okonkwo specifically criticised a proposal by Senator Mohammed Monguno, which provides that manually generated Form EC8A may be used for collation of results if electronic transmission cannot be carried out.

According to him, the provision weakens the intention of electronic transmission by making it optional rather than mandatory.

“Senator Munguno has just proposed a worse amendment to the controversial clause that rejected mandatory electronic transmission of results,” he said.

“He proposed a provison that manually generated form EC8A should be used only for collation of results where electronic transmission is impossible. This is going back to square one where it is not mandatory to electronically transmit election results.”

‘Amendment Legitimises Glitches’

Okonkwo argued that the amendment effectively legitimises technical glitches during elections, citing the experience of the 2023 presidential poll when electronic transmission reportedly failed.

“Indeed, this is approving technical glitches in our elections because this means that when INEC claims that it cannot transmit as it did in 2023 presidential election, it has the power to use the manual results for collation,” the Nollywood Actor cum politician said.

He insisted that elections should be cancelled and rescheduled where electronic transmission fails.

“What Nigerians want is that electronic transmission is mandatory, and anytime it is impossible to transmit election results electronically from the polling unit, the election should be void and cancelled, and another election scheduled for another day,” he added.

Okonkwo noted that similar provisions already exist in the Electoral Act regarding the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System.

“It is important to note that this is how the issue of the BVAS was treated. The provision requires that where the BVAS is not working for accreditation for any reason, the election is cancelled and rescheduled,” he said.

He warned that allowing manual results for collation could undermine electoral credibility.

“It is obvious that Nigerians must insist on their demand for mandatory electronic transmission of results without an option to use only the unverified manual results for collation or the integrity of our elections will be destroyed,” he stated.

“This Senate is hell-bent on destroying our democracy and Nigerians must resist this.”

Naija News reports that the Senate had earlier amended Section 60 of the Electoral Act during an emergency plenary session on Tuesday.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio explained that under the amendment, presiding officers at polling units are required to electronically transmit election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Results Viewing Portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped.

“The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units,” Akpabio said.