Politics

NCC says only 50% of Nigeria has 3G coverage to transmit election results

Published

3 years ago

July 16, 2021

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has told the House of Representatives that only 50% of the country has 3G coverage, which is the requirement to transmit elections results electronically.

This was a fallout from the continued debate on the inclusion of electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act Amendment continues.
Ripples Nigeria had reported that the lawmakers had a rowdy session as debates over the electronic transmission of results on Thursday came to an end.

However, in a statement on Friday, the Executive Commissioner of the NCC, Adeleke Adewolu told lawmakers at the House of Representatives that while concerns over the electronic transmission of results are genuine, no system can guarantee a 100 per cent shield from hacking.

The NCC boss further noted that elections results can only be transmitted by a 3G network, noting that only about 50 percent of the country has 3G coverage.

“For areas without such coverage, poll results can be recorded and thereafter uploaded in places where there is a network but this cannot be compared with the real-time upload,” Adewolu clarified.

During the plenary on Thursday, the House of Representatives had failed to reach an agreement over the controversial clause.

This was after Deputy Speaker Idris Wase ruled against the electronic transmission of results despite a resounding vote in favour of electronic transmission.

The Senate had on the same day voted for the conditional electronic transmission of election results.

At the end of voting, 28 Senators mostly from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) voted for the original amendment.

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