SENATE CLARIFIES IReV ONLY FOR RESULTS TRANSMISSION, NOT ELECTRONIC VOTING

SENATE CLARIFIES IReV ONLY FOR RESULTS TRANSMISSION, NOT ELECTRONIC VOTING The Nigerian Senate on Thursday moved to quell growing confusion and misinformation surrounding the ongoing amendments to the Electoral Act, clarifying that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is strictly a platform for uploading manually counted election results, and not an electronic voting (e-voting) system. Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Panel reviewing the 2026 Electoral Bill, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, made the remarks during an appearance on Arise News Channel, stressing that:
IReV is not designed for e-voting. It simply uploads results that have already been manually counted and declared at polling units.
INEC currently lacks the capacity to conduct electronic voting, meaning votes must still be cast and counted manually at polling stations. The distinction between “real-time transmission” and e-voting has been widely misunderstood or misreported. Real-time transmission of results can only occur if INEC adopts full e-voting technology which the commission does not currently have.
“The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections,” Adegbonmire said, emphasizing that manual results on Form EC8A the official tally sheet signed by polling officials remain the legal basis before any upload or transmission to IReV.
Electronic transmission refers to the upload of results already tallied manually. E-voting means casting votes electronically at the point of voting a capability Nigeria has not yet established.
Thus, transferring results electronically via IReV should not be conflated with allowing voters to cast electronic ballots.
The lawmaker noted that neither IReV nor the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) counts ballots they only facilitate results after manual counting. The Senate’s clarification comes amid public debate and heightened scrutiny over how electoral reforms are shaping up ahead of the 2027 general elections. There has been confusion and concern about whether the legislature has rejected electronic transmission requirements or moved away from reforms aimed at making election results more transparent and less prone to manipulation Civil society groups and opposition voices had previously raised alarms about ambiguities in the revised bill, suggesting that the changes could weaken provisions that were designed to ensure electoral transparency and public confidence in results. While the Senate insists the clarification is a technical and procedural distinction, critics urge more explicit wording in the Electoral Act to prevent misinterpretation and potential exploitation of legislative ambiguity.
Advocates for electoral reform have warned that unclear definitions and lack of statutory backing for electronic processes including transmission could undermine efforts to improve transparency, potentially undermining trust in Nigeria’s future elections. The clarification follows a period of intense public and political debate, with some lawmakers and civil society groups pushing for stronger statutory guarantees for digital elements of election administration including mandatory electronic transmission in real time. The Senate’s messaging seeks to reassure Nigerians that electronic components remain relevant but distinct from e-voting itself.