Court orders INEC to paste, transmit Saturday’s poll results electronically

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit Saturday’s governorship and houses of assembly election results in accordance with its regulations and guidelines.

Justice Obiora Egwuatu gave the judgment while ruling on the suit tagged FHC/ABJ/CS/334/2023, dated 15 of March and filed against INEC by Labour Party (LP) and its governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom, Uduakobong Udoh, including 13 state’s House of Assembly candidates for the March 18 elections.

The applicants had in the suit sought seven reliefs, prayed the court for an order of mandamus compelling INEC and all its agents to comply with and enforce the provision of Clause 37 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of the Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in Akwa Ibom.

They also prayed the court to mandate the presiding officers of all polling units to conspicuously paste the publication of result posters EC460(E) at the polling units after completing the EC8A result sheets.

They sought an order of mandamus compelling the commission to mandate the presiding officers of all polling units in the state to electronically transmit or transfer the result of the polling units, direct to the collation system and use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after the completion of all the polling units voting and results procedures.

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They said this was in compliance with the provision of Clause 38 of the guidelines for the conduct of the polls.

INEC had been heavily criticized over its failure to transmit results of election electronically in line with its guidelines during February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls.

Egwuatu in his ruling also ordered the Commission to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after the completion of all the polling units voting and results’ procedures in Akwa Ibom.

The judge further directed the Commission to conspicuously paste the publication of its result posters EC60(E) at polling units after completing the EC8A result sheets in the state.

He equally ordered INEC to enforce the observance and compliance of Section 27(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 in the distribution of electoral materials during the conduct of the polls in the state by engaging the services of independent, competent, and reliable logistic companies who are non-partisans or known supporters of any political for the distribution of electoral materials and personnel.

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