By Our Reporter, With Agency Report
The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, says lack of mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results will betray public trust and weaken electoral reforms.
Itodo spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
He reacted to Nigerian Senate’s decision that electronic transmission of election results should not be mandatory.
Both chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday passed amendments to the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Enactment Bill 2026), rejecting a clause that would have made real-time electronic transmission to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal compulsory.
Itodo said National Assembly’s decision was a setback to gains made in the Electoral Act of 2022.
He said that the compressed timelines for elections would increase the risk of logistics problems.
“What the Senate passed is not a reform,” Itodo said, and Itodo expressed hope that the Conference Committee would reject the Senate’s position and restore provisions that would make votes count in 2027.
However, the hope of reversing the amendment to real-time transmission f results has been dashed as the passed bill was signed on Wednesday by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
