APC campaign: Electronic transmission of results not mandatory — it’s at INEC’s discretion

The presidential campaign council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says no law mandates the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit election results electronically.

The transmission of results was a major controversy during the collation of presidential election results at the national collation centre in Abuja.

The Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have said the inability of INEC to transmit the results from polling units tainted the outcome of the election.

Reacting in a statement on Friday, Dele Alake, special adviser on media and communications at the PCC, said the transmission of election results is at the discretion of INEC.

He said the Electoral Act 2022 does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.

“The complaint over the electronic transmission of election results is not supported by law,” he said.

“Section 38 of the Electoral Act 2022 relied upon by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) to challenge the result of the Feb. 25 presidential election has nothing to do with transmission of election results.

“Section 60, sub-section 2 of the Act deals with transmission of results and it is at the discretion of INEC. The Act does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.

“In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced.”

He described the decision of the opposition parties to approach the court over the election results as a welcome development.