Falana urges mandatory real-time transmission of polling unit results

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has called on the National Assembly to make real-time electronic transmission of polling unit results mandatory in the ongoing amendment of Nigeria’s Electoral Act.

Falana made the call in a paper presented at a technical expert meeting on the Electoral Act amendment convened by ActionAid Nigeria in Abuja on Friday, where he described the reform as critical to strengthening democratic transparency and institutional credibility.

Addressing lawmakers, civil society leaders, and legal practitioners, Falana clarified that Nigeria does not practise electronic voting, noting that ballots are cast, counted, and recorded manually. He explained that the debate centres on whether scanned copies of signed polling unit result sheets—Form EC8A—should be electronically uploaded immediately after counting.

He recalled that during the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) nationwide to enhance transparency and curb electoral malpractice. However, real-time uploads of results were not uniform, with the commission later citing technical glitches.

Falana referenced explanations by former INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who stated that BVAS does not require internet connectivity for voter accreditation and can store scanned results for upload once network access becomes available.

He also cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Atiku Abubakar & Anor v INEC & Ors (2023), which held that electronic transmission of results is permissible but not mandatory under the Electoral Act 2022. According to Falana, the ruling places the responsibility on lawmakers to explicitly mandate real-time transmission if that is the national objective.

“The polling unit remains the most transparent stage of the electoral process,” he said, warning that once result sheets leave the unit, they become more vulnerable to manipulation and delay.

Falana dismissed arguments equating real-time transmission with electronic voting, describing them as conceptually flawed. He emphasised that Nigeria’s system involves manual voting with digital preservation of signed results, not digital voting.

Addressing concerns about network limitations, he argued that connectivity gaps should not justify abandoning transparency, noting that Nigeria processes millions of electronic banking transactions daily and continues to expand telecommunications infrastructure.

He added that while transmission reform alone cannot resolve all electoral challenges—including vote buying, flawed party primaries, and weak enforcement of electoral offences—it would complement broader reforms aimed at improving electoral integrity.

Falana urged lawmakers to provide clear statutory language specifying the timing, location, and consequences of non-compliance with result transmission requirements, warning that ambiguity encourages discretionary compliance and litigation.

He stressed that democracy depends not only on voting but on public confidence in the preservation of votes, urging the National Assembly to seize the amendment process as an opportunity to entrench transparency and strengthen trust in Nigeria’s electoral system.

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