The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said it would not transfer results from polling units manually during the 2019 general elections.
It will now use e-Collation and Result Transmission System in all the 120,000 polling units.
This is contained in a document titled, “Towards 2019: Recent technological deployments” made available to stakeholders between March 14 and 21 by INEC.
The electoral body explained that it adopted the e-collation, following cases of recurring manipulation of results.
INEC said: “Observations have shown, over the years that most election malpractices that take place do not happen at the Polling Units (PUs)
“The challenge has been after the polls – between the PU and the Collation Centres, and at the Collation Centres.
“INEC has, therefore, decided to securely transmit election results from all Pus straight to a central database, such that only viewing access is allowed at the Wards and the LGAs – which ultimately is aimed at eliminating manual collation processes.”
The electoral commission also highlighted the features of the new e-collation system:
•is a robust and well secured platform that collects data from the Polling Units (PUs) and collates the results up to the required level for any set election;
•has the ability to collate and transmit data across the country;
• can collect results from either of the following: Local Government Area (LGA), Ward/Registration Area (RA), or PU;
• works with any election type – Presidential, National Assembly, Governorship or State Houses of Assemblies;
•The portal has a flexible dashboard with a real-time user interface, showing a graphical presentation of the current status of results collated per given time; and
• has been piloted for all bye-elections and re-run elections since 2014.
The document added: “INEC is preparing for 2019, and is further deploying technology to improve its service delivery, make its processes more credible and less prone to manipulations.
“The votes of Nigerians must keep counting, and this is what technology is helping us to achieve.
“Continuous Voter Registration is commencing soon, Nationwide – giving an opportunity to those who have recently turned 18 or have not been previously enrolled to vote.
“Operations of the SCRs are being improved to make the process of voter authentication better. Result collation process will become better when results are transmitted from the PUs.”
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