The independent national electoral commission, INEC, has addressed the challenges faced with the slow uploading of polling unit results of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly election results on its result viewing portal (IRev).
Nigerians trooped to the polls on Saturday, and the voting process concluded late at night at most of the over 176,000 polling units where the election was held across the country. While many Nigerians insisted that INEC officials upload the results as soon as possible on IReV, it has been discovered that most of the polls were not uploaded almost 24 hours later.
The social media space has been agog with their frustrations as the state of results upload is contrary to the promise by INEC to upload the results on the portal as soon as counting ends. Many speculations have hinted that it could be a means to tamper with the election results.
However, INEC, in a statement signed by its Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, has disclosed that it was aware of the challenges and blamed technical hitches. The commission allayed fears that the portal was compromised, saying the IReV remained secured.
It said the problem, which had started seeing improvement since Saturday night was not due to any interference by hackers. It attributed the problem to routine glitches common to technological platforms.
INEC assured Nigerians that the results are safe on the results sheets and the IReV portal. Also, the technical team is working to resolve the issue completely.
INEC’s full statement on IReV glitch
The Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady. The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our 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.
More about IReV
According to an INEC statement about the results viewing portal, the electoral referee aims to find ways to use technology to improve the credibility of elections and ensure the safety of citizens participating in the electoral process.
This will work hand in hand with the Bimodal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) machine. After the accreditation process and the voting ended, the BVAS will take a picture of the compilation of the votes and upload it on the results viewing portal. It was expected to be done in all the polling units in 36 states.
Nigerians can then sign up on the portal and view the election results uploaded from all polling units, a means to help keep the compiling of election results accessible and transparent.
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