Electoral Act amendment will pave way for electronic transmission of election results – Ekweremadu

The Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said on Friday the amendment of the Electoral Act would pave the way for electronic transmission of election results in the country.

Ekweremadu, who disclosed to journalists in Abuja, said the electronic transmission of election results would improve the integrity of the process in Nigeria.

He added that the lawmakers are also considering a bill that seeks to improve election timelines in Nigeria.

The Joint Technical Committee on Repeal of Electoral Act 2010 submitted its report to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Electoral Matters on Tuesday.

Ekweremadu said: “What we are working on now, we want to take a step further by saying that you don’t just conduct the elections through electronic means, but importantly you also need to transmit it through electronic means.

READ ALSO: Amendment of Electoral Act won’t guarantee free, fair elections –INEC

“Most of the troubles we have with our elections happen between the polling booth and the collation centres.

“So this can be bypassed by using the electronic means of transmission. I was in Edo for the governorship election and it worked. They simply uploaded the results from the polling booth straight to the INEC website and people can have access to it and monitor the election as the results are coming in.

“But it wasn’t in any part of the Electoral Act or the constitution. So we intend to bring it into the Electoral Act and hope that our colleagues will also accept it.”

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