Senate Plans Fresh Electoral Act Amendment, To Make Results Upholding Online Mandatory

The Senate is considering amending the electoral act 2022 to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the results of polls.

Chairman of the Senate Electoral Matters Committee, Sharafadeen Ali, speaking on a television programme on Tuesday, said the proposal is part of reforms being considered to further enhance the credibility of polls.

He explained that the electoral act makes no provision for the mandatory for the uploading of the polls results into the independent results viewing platform of INEC.

He said other electoral reforms being considered is that all pre-election litigations must be concluded before holding of the polls.

Also, the proposed reform would ensure that all litigations arising from polls must be concluded before the swearing in of those elected in the polls.

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Ali said there would have been no off cycle polls if all litigations from polls are being concluded before newly elected politicians are sworn into office.

It is just to ask INEC to make sure that we improve our technology and ensure that things are there.

We looked at elections and election petitions. In terms of legislation about election petitions, what we think is all pre-election matters [should be] resolved before the election, Alli explained.

He added that the committee considered a scenario where election petitions were concluded before the swearing-in of elected officials, to streamline the process and prevent situations that necessitate off-cycle elections.

Affirming the committee’s commitment to technological advancements and acknowledging past disappointments, he emphasised the need for improvement in technology, particularly addressing issues like the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) malfunctioning in previous elections.