The Senate has clarified that the electronic transmission of election results in real time should not be misconstrued as the adoption of an electronic voting system.
Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Panel to Review the 2026 Electoral Bill, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire (APC, Ondo Central), stated on Thursday that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) currently lacks the capacity to conduct e-voting. He emphasised that Nigeria has not transitioned to an electronic voting system, contrary to insinuations in some quarters and media reports.
Speaking during an appearance on Arise News, Adegbonmire explained that the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is not an e-voting platform. Rather, it is a software platform developed by INEC to upload and publicise results that have already been manually counted and declared at polling units.
According to him, the electoral process still requires the presiding officer to manually record results in Form EC8A at the polling unit. After the form is duly completed, signed by the presiding officer, and countersigned by party agents, the results are then transmitted or uploaded to the IReV portal for public access.
He argued that substituting the word “transmit” with “upload” in the Electoral Bill 2026 would not materially alter the process, since the system does not permit electronic casting of votes. “Real-time transmission can only happen if INEC adopts an e-voting system. For now, INEC does not have the capability for e-voting,” he said, adding that such a transition may become feasible in the coming years.
The Senate had earlier constituted the seven-member ad-hoc panel to harmonise divergent views and address grey areas in the Electoral Bill review process, appointing Adegbonmire as chairman.
He stressed that clarifying the distinction between result transmission and e-voting is crucial to preventing misinformation and safeguarding national cohesion.
