“Truth Must be Told”: Non-functioning of IReV May Reduce Voters’ Confidence, Supreme Court Admits
- The Supreme Court has spoken on IReV, an online platform where pictures of polling unit results are uploaded using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines
- INEC had promised ahead of the last general elections in Nigeria that the results would be uploaded to IReV promptly
- However, it failed to fulfill the promise with results taking days to weeks to be uploaded to IReV for the public to access, prompting serious displeasure from opposition elements
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FCT, Abuja - The Supreme Court has said the non-functioning of the Result Viewing (IReV) portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may reduce the confidence of the voting public in the electoral process.
Per Guardian newspaper, during the hearing of the disputed 2023 presidential election on Thursday, October 26, Justice Iyang Okoro held that INEC’s failure to electronically transmit the election results via the IReV does not affect the collation.
Source: Twitter
IReV malfunctioning reduced public confidence, Supreme Court
Justice Okoro noted that the Electoral Act empowers INEC to determine the mode of transmission of election results. However, the court noted that IReV’s malfunctioning reduced public confidence in the presidential election, Channels Television reported.
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Okoro said:
“Truth must be told, the non-functioning of the IReV may also reduce confidence of the voting public in the electoral process.”
Continuing, the Justice Okoro held that the non-availability of election results on IReV was not a ground for the nullification of the February 2023 presidential election.
He stated that by Section 135 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the election shall not be liable to be invalidated because of non-compliance of electronic transmission of results.
His words:
“From the provisions of the Act stated above, it is crystal clear that the petitioner (Atiku Abubakar) seeking to nullify the election on the grounds of non-compliance must not only lead evidence to prove the non-compliance but must also show to the court how the non-compliance substantially affect the outcome of the election.
“The appellants abandoned the duties imposed on them to lead credible evidence to prove non-compliance but relied solely on the failure of the first respondent (INEC) to transmit results real-time to the IReV portal.”
Supreme Court’s judgement: "We're alarmed", PDP
In a related article, Legit.ng reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it is appalled by the judgement of the Supreme Court in the petition filed by its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
In a statement signed by Debo Ologunagba, the PDP spokesperson, obtained by Legit.ng on Thursday, October 26, the main opposition party alleged that the apex court has failed Nigerians.
Source: Legit.ng
