APA – Lagos (Nigeria) Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has admitted that it is having challenges with its Results Viewing Portal.
In a statement by Mr. Festus Okoye, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Voter Education Committee and Publicity of INEC on Sunday in Abuja, said that “unlike in offseason elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady’’.
It added that the commission regretted the setback, especially because of the importance of INEC result viewing portal, IReV, in its results management process.
“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.
“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night. We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Unit copies which were issued to political parties are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal,” it said.
According to the statement, these results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.
“We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties, and the electorate,” it added.
Meanwhile, the collation of the result of the presidential elections held on Saturday and Sunday continues in Abuja on Monday, according the Chairman of the electoral body. Prof. Mahood Yakubu.
GIK/APA