The
Independent National Electoral Commission, has stated that apart from giving
physical copies of results of the 2019 elections to party agents, it will also
be announcing the results electronically.
The commission said the same
mechanism would be used in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections in July
and September, respectively.
The
Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this when he visited the Executive
Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta,
in Abuja on Tuesday.
Yakubu said, “We are planning for
full deployment (of electronic and manual transmission) this year in
governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun. Thereafter we intend to deploy the
system in the 2019 general elections.
“INEC has developed the hardware
and software. However, we rely on the operators for the transmission of both the
figures and scanned images of result sheets. We wish to assure Nigerians that
while we transmit the raw figures from polling units, scanned images of the
result sheets will also be transmitted electronically in addition to physical
copies given to party agents at polling units.”
Yakubu appealed to the NCC as the
regulator to facilitate a meeting between INEC and the telecommunications
operators with the aim of assisting the electoral body in the conduct of the
election.
The INEC
boss added, “Similarly, we would like the NCC to facilitate discussions with
operators on ways of enhancing their corporate social responsibility to
Nigeria’s electoral process. An immediate area of interest to INEC is how the
operators can help in voter education and publicity.
“Towards the 2019 general
elections, we would like the operators in collaboration with INEC, to send bulk
SMS and possibly voice messages as well on the imperative of peaceful
elections, the collection of Permanent Voter Cards by registered voters and directional
information on the location of polling units for easy access to voters.”
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