Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Panel on the Review of the 2026 Electoral Bill, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, has clarified that real-time electronic transmission of election results does not amount to electronic voting, stressing that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) currently lacks the capacity to conduct e-voting.
He made the clarification in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, amid controversy over the role of the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in future elections.
Adegbonmire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, said contrary to claims in some quarters, Nigeria has not transitioned to an e-voting system.
“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,” he said.
He described reports suggesting that the Senate had rejected the use of IReV for the 2027 elections as a misconception.
“The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections. So, what is IReV? It is software developed by INEC to publicise results by INEC,” he said.
Clarifying the distinction between transmission of results and e-voting, Adegbonmire explained that voting and vote counting remain manual processes.
“When you talk about transmission, it has nothing to do with the sanctity of the voting process. If you are given a ballot paper to thumbprint, it is counted manually after the election. It is not IReV or BVAS that count ballots. Vote count is manually done,” he said.
He further stated: “IReV is not an e-voting platform as some people think. This is the misinformation some people are peddling. They keep saying, ‘When will I see my vote?’ But in reality, IReV is a platform meant to publicise election results already declared at the polling units.”
According to him, the Electoral Bill requires presiding officers to first complete Form EC8A manually before any electronic upload.
“The provision says the presiding officer will first fill the result manually in Form EC8A. It is the Form EC8A that has been filled manually that will be transmitted to IReV. If we change ‘transmit’ to ‘upload’ in the Electoral Bill 2026, will it change anything? The answer is No,” he said.
“Whether we call it upload, transfer, or transmission, as far as it says IReV must be used, it will be used in the manner it was configured. You must first manually write out the figure. After you have written out the figure at the polling unit, then you can upload, transfer or transmit depending on the nomenclature we want to use.
“When you have not complied with the proper filling of Form EC8A, you cannot transfer, transmit or upload it. That is what people must understand.”
Adegbonmire emphasised that IReV, as software designed by INEC, cannot be altered by legislative wording alone.
“IReV has a pattern of working, and the National Assembly cannot change the software by mere legislation. It was a sheer misconception to conclude that the Senate declined the use of IReV for the transmission of election results,” he said.
Explaining logistical realities across the country, the lawmaker cited Ondo State as an example of why uniform real-time uploads may be impractical.
“In my own case, I come from Akure. I vote in Akure. All the electoral materials are brought in two to three days before the election and kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria. The night before, they start transporting them to different locations across the state. In Ondo State, there are places where one has to travel for eight hours to get there. In some cases, they have to use boats to get to the riverine areas.
“This means voting cannot start at the same time nationwide. In Akure, voting can start at 10:00 a.m. In other parts of the state, voting may not start until 2:00 p.m., even 4:00 p.m. Most likely, they will finish vote count by 10:00 p.m.
“In Akure, presiding officers may upload results at 4:00 p.m. because voting is concluded as scheduled. In some riverine areas, voting may just be starting at that time. This is the reality in the country, and we must take it into consideration in our reforms.”
He cautioned that misunderstanding the upload process could trigger unnecessary disputes.
“What the Senate has done is that we do not want a situation where somebody will come and say this man ought to have uploaded this result at 2:00 p.m. You and I know that it is not every time you put something on the Internet that will go through freely. If we are not careful, the smallest thing will spark an issue.
“If somebody says the election result was declared at 2:00 p.m., how did you put it on IReV at 7:00 p.m.? They will simply assume the results were rigged. The media need to be careful how you report all these issues.”
The Senate had constituted a seven-member ad-hoc panel to review the report of its Committee on Electoral Matters, harmonise divergent views and address grey areas in the proposed 2026 Electoral Bill, with Adegbonmire appointed to chair the panel.
Boluwatife Enome
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