Abuja: The Senate has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacks the capacity to conduct e-voting at present.
The upper chamber also clarified that the real-time transmission of election results does not constitute e-voting, as peddled in some quarters.
Chairman of the Senate Ad hoc Panel to Review the 2026 Electoral Bill, Sen. Adeniyi Adegbonmire, made the clarifications on Thursday during an appearance on a programme in Abuja.
Adegbonmire equally maintained that the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is not an e-voting platform.
“It is a platform where the election results that have been manually counted and declared at the polling units are uploaded and made accessible to the public on the Internet,” he clarified, explaining that ‘uploading’ here means sending copies of counted results to the online portal.
The senator explained the difference between the real-time transmission of election results and the e-voting system.
The Senate had constituted an ad hoc committee to review the report of its Committee on Electoral Matters, harmonise divergent views, and address the grey areas identified during the exercise.
Adegbonmire said Nigeria has not adopted e-voting, despite contrary reports.
He said, “People need to understand what real-time means. Real-time transmission can only happen if INEC adopts an e-voting system.
“For now, INEC does not have the capability for e-voting. Maybe in two or three years, we can adopt e-voting. But as of today, INEC has not put an e-voting system in place.
“This is the misconception that the media has brought into play. The provision you keep emphasising states that the presiding officer will first enter the result manually in Form EC8A.
“It is the Form EC8A that has been filled manually and will be transmitted to IReV. If we change ‘transmit’ to ‘upload’ in the Electoral Bill, 2026, will it make any difference? The answer is no,” he said.
Adegbonmire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, further explained the misconceptions.
He said that misconceptions about IReV should be corrected, given its implications for the country’s peaceful coexistence.
IReV is not a voting platform but publicises results declared at polling units.
“It is important, first of all, to understand what IReV does because there are a lot of misconceptions about it or deliberate misrepresentations of what it stands for.
“The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections. So, what is IReV? It is a software developed by INEC to publicise the results.
IReV is not an e-voting platform, contrary to misconceptions.
“They keep saying when I want to see my vote. But in reality, IReV is a platform meant to publicise election results that have already been declared at the polling units.
“This is not an emotional argument. I heard people say the House of Representatives should adopt this version.
“It is a sheer misconception. What does the version say? It simply says the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the result from each polling unit to the IReV portal in real time.
“And that such transmission shall be done after Form EC8A has been signed by the presiding officer and countersigned by the candidate or polling agent at the polling unit,” the lawmaker explained.
