THE NARRATIVE FORCE REJECTS SENATE AMENDMENT TO SECTION 60(3) OF THE ELECTORAL ACT 2022
The Narrative Force acknowledges the decision of the Senate to amend Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022 by introducing mandatory electronic transmission of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV). While this development may appear progressive at first glance, it regrettably falls short of the clear and unequivocal demand of the Nigerian people.
The amendment reportedly retains a proviso permitting recourse to manual collation using Form EC8A where electronic transmission is said to have failed due to communication or network challenges. This retained exception is profoundly problematic and structurally inconsistent with the objective of electoral reform.
For a nation that has endured decades of electoral manipulation, intimidation, result substitution, and institutional compromise, reform cannot be conditional upon subjective declarations of technical difficulty. A statutory framework that allows manual processes to assume operational primacy upon mere assertion of connectivity failure reintroduces vulnerability at the very stage historically most susceptible to abuse.
Manual collation has long represented the weakest link in Nigeria’s electoral chain. It is at this stage that alterations, overwriting, substitution, and documentary manipulation have most frequently occurred. Any legal architecture that permits manual result sheets to supersede electronically captured records risks entrenching the very deficiencies electronic transmission was intended to cure.
It must be stated with clarity and technical precision:
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is designed to capture results digitally, generate time-stamped records, and store data locally pending transmission. Where connectivity is unstable, electronically captured results remain device-logged and capable of upload once network access is restored. Network fluctuation does not in itself nullify digital capture, nor does it erase encrypted records stored within the device architecture.
While genuine technical contingencies may arise in rare circumstances,such as device malfunction or catastrophic operational failure,such contingencies must be objectively verifiable and procedurally documented. They must not rest solely on discretionary declarations capable of manipulation.
Connectivity challenges must therefore never become an automatic pretext for elevating manual collation above secured electronic capture. Where digital capture has occurred, the electronically time-stamped record should constitute the primary evidentiary benchmark, subject only to strict and independently verifiable exceptions.
The Nigerian people did not demand electronic transmission when convenient. They demanded a transparent, certain, and tamper-resistant process. Any statutory framework that conditions electronic transmission on discretionary fallback clauses susceptible to abuse risks repackaging legacy vulnerabilities under legislative camouflage.
If manual collation must exist as a residual safeguard, it must be strictly subordinate to electronically captured results. It must be reconcilable against digital logs. It must be auditable. It must never function as an alternative of equal status triggered by unverified claims of network disruption.
In practical effect, a system that allows manual processes to assume dominance upon subjective assertions creates a structural loophole inconsistent with the spirit of reform. Electoral integrity requires that digital capture and transmission form the evidentiary foundation of the process, not a conditional aspiration.
We therefore respectfully but unequivocally reject the amendment to Section 60(3) as presently framed. We call upon the National Assembly Conference Committee to align the Electoral Act with the overwhelming public demand expressed during stakeholder consultations: electronic transmission must be mandatory, primary, and legally superior ,subject only to narrowly defined, objectively verifiable contingencies.
Nigeria cannot afford cosmetic reform masquerading as structural transformation. The sovereignty of the people demands a system anchored in certainty, transparency, and technological accountability.
SIGNED:
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
For: THE NARRATIVE FORCE
