Nigeria election agency, INEC don explain why collation of results for di 2023 general elections go be manual.
Di Independent National Electoral Commission say dem no dey do anything different, as na according to di law dem dey operate.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of dia Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye tell BBC Pidgin say;
“Di law dey very clear, we dey use di constitution and di electoral act for di purposes of di conduct of di 2023 general election.
“Di law neva change fundamentally.” Okoye tok.
“Wetin di law tok be say di moment election don dey ova for polling unit, di presiding officer wey dey dat particular polling unit go enta di votes wey each political party score for one form wey dem call – EC8A, wey be manual form.”
Okoye say di presiding officer go come sign on di EC8A form and stamp am.
Den di party agents go sign di forms and dem go come give copy of di form to each di various party agents and police officers, if dem dey present.
Later, di presiding officer go use di Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to snap dat form and then transmit dat result inside di form to di INEC viewing portal, IReV.
Also, di presiding officer go come carry manual form, BVAS and every oda material wey dem use concerning di election go to di first level of collation.
Dat na di registration area collation centre or wetin pipo dey normally call di ward.
E go come hand over di manual form to di collation officer at di registration area level.
Di collation officer no dey collate [alias compile or count] im result from di IReV, di law no permit am to do dat.
Di only time e go look at di electronic transmitted one na if dispute dey relating to di manual one.
Na dat manual form di collation officer go use take transfer di polling unit result into form EC8B, wey be di be registration area collated result.
If for instance any argument dey relating to wetin dey dat manual EC8A form wey di presiding officer fill den di collation officer go need to look at di data from di BVAS.
And also, e gatz look at dat original one wey di presiding officer don bin transmit from di polling unit go di INEC viewing portal.
Dis na because na di manually collated result na im di presiding officer bin don first transmit to INEC result-viewing portal, IReV.
2023 Election result collation – Step by step process
INEC national commissioner Festus Okoye say e dey surprise say pipo dey shock to hear say 2023 election result collation go be manual.
Okoye tell BBC Pidgin Princess Igho Williams say di procedure always be ‘essentially manual’ as dem do for Osun and Ekiti state govnorship elections.
E say di manual collation process go follow dis steps:
- Wen evribodi don vote finish for di election day, di Presiding officer go count manually and announce di result wit im mouth for di polling unit.”
- “Thereafter di Presiding Officer go use biro enta di scores of each political parties for form EC8A (wey we dey call di polling unit result form).”
- “E go sign and then stamp. den e go call on all di party agents available to also countersign, e go come give each of dem a copy and also give to di police officers.”
- “E go come snap di original of dat copy and then transmit am to di INEC result viewing portal, IReV.
- “Di presiding officer must still carry dat manually filled form, EC8A to di first level of collation (Dat na Registration area collation centre).
- “If di party agents wey accompany di Presiding Officer to di collation centre disagree with am, then di Collation Officer go need to open di transmitted result wey di Presiding Officer bin snap for di polling unit and send to IReV.
- “Di Collation Officer go also look at di data of accredited voters as recorded in di BVAS and use am to resolve di problem.”
- “But if no dispute dey from di party agents, di Collation Officer no need to look at di BVAS or di electronic transmitted result.”
Note say di Collation Officer no dey collate im result from di IReV, di law no permit am to do dat, oga Okoye tok.
However, di only time e go look at di electronic transmitted one na if dispute dey relating to di manual one.
Wetin be result collation?
Nigeria election agency spokesman say pipo dey misinterpret di word transmission and collation.
Festus Okoye say collation of result na ‘essentially’ manual.
“Collation of result ( dat na gathering of result) dey happun for ward, local goment, state level and presidential level.”
“Collation na gathering of results into one document (form).”
“Transmission of result, in fact di electoral act call am transfer (dat na manually) and transmission (dat na electronically).”
Oga Okoye say each registrations area covers between 10 and 15 polling unit, so di Presiding officer for those unit go take dia result to one Collation centre.”
“Wen dem get there, dem go handover everything wey dem get to di Collation Officer.
“Na di same process wey take place for Osun and Ekiti state governorship election,” Oga Okoye tok.
Function of di Bimodal voter accreditation systems, BVAS
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of dia Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye tell BBC Pidgin say di BVAS dey perform three functions.
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Dis na di three function wey di BVAS dey do in relation to di elections;
During di registration of voters, we call am di IVED – dat na INEC voters enrolment device.
- During di voting process we call am di BVAS, dat na for purposes of accreditation of voters. To verify and authenticate that di pesin wey come di polling unit na im truly be di registered voter.
- After di election, di BVAS go now be wetin dem go use to snap di polling unit result and transmit am into di INEC result viewing portal for result upload.
