Lawmakers makes U-turn over electronic voting

The House of Representatives on Tuesday rescinded the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill it passed last December, especially Section 60(3).

The former clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act amendment bill mandated INEC to electronically transmit results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) in real time, together with physical collation of results.

However, the new one states that:

“(3) The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to IREV portal and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or Polling agents where available at the Polling Unit.

“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the result fails as a result of communication failure and it becomes impossible to transmit the result contained in form EC8A
signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling unit, the form EC8A shall remain the primary source of collation and declaration of the result.”

Consequently, opposition lawmakers staged a walkout of the chambers after the passage of the clause.

The lawmakers, led by minority leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, stormed the House of Representatives Media Centre where they rejected the new clause and others which they called anti-people.