The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has attributed the
challenges being faced by the commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to
technical hitches related to the scaling up of the platform.
This disclosure is contained in a statement signed by the INEC National
Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus
Okoye, on Sunday, where he admitted that the commission is aware of issues with
IReV, which has been relatively slow and unsteady.
Okoye, who assured that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage
of their system as the IReV platform remains well secured, however, noted that
their technical team is working assiduously to solve all outstanding problems.
INEC acknowledges the importance of Result Viewing Portal
Okoye in the statement said that INEC acknowledges the importance of IReV in
the results management process, hence the need to quickly address the problems.
The statement from Okoye reads, “The Commission is aware of challenges
with the INEC Results Viewing Portal. Unlike in offseason 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 offseason, 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.’’
INEC assures that results are safe on BVAS and IReV portal
The INEC Spokesman added, “We also wish to assure Nigerians that results
from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe
on both the BVAS and the IReV portal. 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.”
For the record
In a related development, there have been several reported cases of the
failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during Saturday’s
Presidential and National Assembly elections leading to delays in the voting
process.
Many voters and stakeholders in the electoral system had expressed their
dissatisfaction over the inability of INEC to upload the election results that had
already been collated, raising concerns over the credibility of those results.
Sources:Nairametrics
