MANUAL TRANSMISSION OF RESULTS UNDER THE ELECTORAL ACT 2022: THE VALIDITY, AUTHENTICITY AND ACCEPTABILITY OF RESULTS

Abstract

The 2023 presidential election which was concluded on the 25th of February, 2023 has been the talk of the country, Nigeria and other countries beyond Nigeria. It is observed that many disheartened citizens have levelled various complaints as to the outcome of the election when the declaration of the winner of the election was made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). From the foregoing, a lot of debate has been brought up with respect to the declaration of the winner of the presidential election, as a result of the procedure adopted by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the transmission of the election results which led to the conclusion and declaration of the said winner of the election. This debate is as regards to the question, whether the act of the manual transmission of results as against the extant provision of the law which brought about the electronic transmission of results by INEC is valid or not and whether the result declared by the INEC should be acceptable. It is observed that the legislators enacted a new Electoral Act, 2022 which made new provisions and coverings of some things not found in the Electoral Act, 2010. Also, a new guideline and regulation was made by INEC to guide the procedure for the presidential election, 2023. One of the remarkable provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 is the provision of the Electronic transmission of election results, as against manual transmission of results. In line with this, there are certain pertinent questions that beg for answers. These questions are whether or not the right procedure for transmission of election results was properly followed by INEC which is the body responsible for transmission of the said result? Is there any resultant effect for the breach of the provisions of the extant law with respect to the electronic transmission of election results? These questions shall be properly addressed in the body of this work. The author strongly recommends, inter alia, for the strict compliance with the extant law on the provisions of the new Electoral Act and the invalidation of any result which was not gotten in accordance with the provisions of the extant law.