X-raying Collation Centres as a Test of Elections Results Integrity and Credibility By An INEC Accredited Observer
Following the uproar generated recently over the Electoral Act 2026 Amendment Bill which is already an Act by some political parties, civil society organizations, professional groups, labour unions and persons, with regards to instant or immediate or real time electronic transmission of election results which these class of interests are clamouring for, one has deemed it necessary to set the records straight because of the litany of lies, falsehood and misinformation being peddled on this basis about Nigeria’s election process with the intention to soil it’s integrity which stands high and comparable with global best practices.
The advocates of instant, immediate and real time electronic transmission of election results and their followers have even attempted to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians and incite them, by claiming that instant, immediate and real time transmission of election results guarantees public trust and transparency of the process, which is a lie and an attempt to be clever by half.
Their clamour is suspicious with ulterior motives against genuine and sincere agitations for a free, fair, credible and transparent elections for which they are posturing.
If we reflect dispassionately into our elections history, we would appreciate that the greatest invention which has guaranteed the integrity of our elections and the sanctity of the ballot box through one man, one vote and one woman, one vote, was the introduction of E-card reader and later BVAS machine by the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the general elections in 2015.
As an INEC accredited observer of over two decades, one can say with all sense of responsibility, that the E-card reader which was replaced by the BVAS machine, is the novel game changer in our electoral system. With the introduction of the BVAS, the number of voters who cast their votes on election day has reduced drastically from the fraudulent situation of 100-120% before it, to in some instance 10% turnout or more, but not more than 30% since it’s application.
For those who have diligently monitored our elections in over the years, one will recognize that in the past, names like Nelson Mandela, Mohammed Ali, Mother Teresa, Mike Tyson, Bishop Desmond Tutu and all sorts of fictitious names, and multiple ballot papers thumbprints by same fingers were discovered to have voted in Nigeria’s election through the scrutiny of the courts while adjudicating on election disputes, most especially during the inglorious days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and INEC under Prof Maurice Iwu, where in polling stations where there are 500 names on the voters register, at the end of the exercise, results returned showed that either the whole 500 persons voted for only one party or in some cases, 520 or more voted, thus surpassing the number of persons on the voters register for the polling station, which the height of electoral fraud.
That was the period when electoral malfeasance was at it’s peak. To corroborate the elections shenanigans perpetuated by the Obasanjo administration, his late successor Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua had to publicly confess that he couldn’t in good conscience live with the most fraudulent election in human history conducted by his predecessor, the 2007 general elections through which he came into office, and thus constituted the Uwais Panel on electoral reforms to review Nigeria’s electoral system of abracadabra, tears, sorrow, blood and international embarrassment and birth a new one of honour, credibility and integrity.
As a consequence of the reform and subsequent ones put in place by INEC under the then leadership of Prof Attahiru Jega, the E-card reader came into being despite subterranean attempts by the political class, especially by the then ruling party and government of the day to kill it, because of it’s impregnable use for accreditation which made it impossible for the number of votes cast to be higher than accredited voters at the polls on election day, or else the results will be cancelled due to the fraud of over voting.
This was the period when vote trading began to be watered because the political class having realized that voting by proxy and ballot stuffing which was the main thing in the past, can now be easily identified through the BVAS machine and nullified, resorted to vote buying as a veritable means to electoral victory.
With the introduction of BVAS and it’s legalization as a mechanism for voters accreditation, the era of ballot snatching and multiple thumb printing of ballot papers at the polling stations became unprofitable and bad business hence the political class having realized that the window for electoral malpractice was thinning out as a result of the technological innovation by INEC, resorted to vote trading which is a malaise that we are still grappling with till today.
When real time, immediate and instant electronic transmission of election results advocates, claim that it will enhance the integrity and credibility of the process, they lie and the truth is far from them. They are only using such sweet words to swindle the gullible to see their intentions as genuine, when the opposite is the case.
This due to the fact the transmission of election results either electronically or manually will be performed by a human being who is not infallible, but with the automated technology like the BVAS which cannot be manipulated in terms of accredited voters, INEC has upheld the sanctity of the process and eliminated ballot snatching, stuffing and voting by proxy which was the in thing in the past. Note, the BVAS is only for accreditation and the figures recorded as votes scored by parties in totality must not exceed BVAS accreditation figures, otherwise the polling station result will be cancelled due to over voting as prescribed by law.
But fortunately for us, the national assembly in it’s wisdom which is in tandem with our infrastructural reality and the future of our democracy, decided in favour of electronic transmission of results where network is available or by manual transmission on form EC8A which is the primary source of the collation and must be signed and countersigned by the presiding officer and party agents where available before being uploaded, thus ensuring that the transmission of election results will not be a one way traffic by making it mandatory, instant or real time as demanded by those Interests, which is a fraudulent denial of the factual challenges that afflict humans and technology which are not foolproof.
Again, these advocates claim that immediate, instant and real time electronic transmission of election results will prevent the manipulations that occur during collation process. Once again as an INEC accredited observer of over 25 years in election observation service, that is a big lie and cheap blackmail.
Since the advent of our democracy in 1999 till date, we have never had electoral cases where election results and declaration are disputed on the basis of collation by a political party or parties, rather the crux of electoral disputes are petitions over alleged electoral malpractice said to have occurred at the polling stations.
The collation centres is simply a venue for adding up figures of results obtained by political parties, declared and documented on form EC8A duly signed and countersigned by the PO and party agents, from the ward, to the local government, state and even the national collation centres.
At the ward, local government, state and national collation centres, the population is made up of the INEC chief returning officers at the various levels who are all academicians recruited from tertiary institutions together with the Electoral Officers (EO) at the local government council and Resident Electoral Commissioners at the State levels, the INEC chairman at the national level as the Chief Returning Officer, representatives of political parties as collations agents at the various levels, accredited observers, the media and security agencies and election monitoring agencies.
For our information, the INEC ward collation centre is a clearing house for what transpired at the polling stations, as the ward returning officer has the powers to review the polling stations results in the presence of all the other stakeholders save for voters who are the only ones absent at this level. A political party ward collation agent has a right to take up a complaint from his polling station agent to the ward collation centre for resolution. This explains why some polling stations results are cancelled by the ward collation officer, if he suspects that electoral malpractice has taken place, and how does he know this, when he was not present at the identified polling stations, since he can’t be at all polling stations at the same time?
The answer is simple, he or she simply fact check the BVAS machine accreditation figure against the totality of votes scored by the political parties and if the total votes scored exceed the number of accredited voters as recorded by the BVAS machine, definitely that’s a case of over voting and the penalty is outright cancellation of the polling station result. One is making this clarification, so that people don’t go about assuming that whatever happens at the polling stations cannot be queried, no, INEC has a lot of checks and balances that interrogates the process from the commencement and during elections, till when results are announced and even after a declaration of winner has been made.
Again, to burst the bubble of the fraudulent agitators of real time, instant, mandatory and immediate electronic transmission of election results as a means to free, fair and transparent elections, is the fact that a critical safeguard put in place at all levels of the collation system is the deployment of mathematicians and statisticians sourced by INEC from the ivory towers to vet results before they are announced to uphold the mathematical accuracy, credibility and integrity of the exercise. Once the statisticians or mathematicians query figures scored, definitely an error or compromise has occured in the system and until they give clearance after the problem has been sorted out, no results will be processed and declared because a mistake or error of missing or not recording just a single vote scored, can taint the integrity of the process and render it null and void.
The collation of election results at the collation centres is scientific and there are solid checks and balances put in place to safeguard the transparency and credibility of elections to ensure that the votes returned at the polling stations are not in anyway compromised or altered. Thus when these advocates for free, fair, credible and transparent elections fraudulently claim that manipulations of elections results occur during or at collation process, know that they are not being truthful and sincere but only using it as a smokescreen to disguise their evil intentions to undermine the process.
Thank you.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Yours Sincerely,
Nelson Ekujumi
