There is no legislation requiring INEC to electronically communicate election results, according to the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Dele Alake, the PCC’s special adviser on media and communications, made the announcement on Friday during a press conference in Abuja.
The transmission of poll results, according to Mr. Alake, is at INEC’s discretion.
He claims that there is no requirement regarding the transfer of results in the Electoral Act of 2022.
“The legal basis for the complaint regarding the electronic transmission of voting results is insufficient.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) used Section 38 of the Election Act 2022 to contest the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
The transmission of findings is subject to INEC’s discretion and is covered by Section 60, Subsection 2 of the Act. There is no requirement in the Act requiring the transmission of findings.
In any event, Mr. Alake emphasized, “the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later, or at any moment, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced.
The counting of ballots in front of party officials and in front of the voters, he continued, was crucial.
Mr. Alake argued that it was preposterous to imply that a difference in uploading times would affect the numbers.
Any transmission of polling unit results, whether in real time, two days later, or at any other moment, he said, “cannot in any way change the results that have been announced.
He continued by saying that the purpose of the press conference was to address recent statements made by both the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and the LP’s Peter Obi regarding the election results.
He called the PDP, LP, and NNPP’s efforts to petition the court regarding the poll results a positive development.
We should be grateful that they chose the rule of law in the end rather than maintaining their unfounded pursuit of a mirage in a belligerent manner at first.
“Those who claim to be democratically inclined are supposed to be aware of those unchangeable minimum standards of law and order, even in the presence of apparent injustice.
Contrary to what Atiku and Mr. Obi falsely claimed, the reasons why the elections were lost were predicted, he continued.
“In addition to the false hopes raised during the campaigns to deceive the electorate, the majority of PDP officials were aware that Mr. Obi had destroyed their party.
“The South-east and South-South, which had historically been PDP strongholds, made up the heart of the LP’s support base.
“The PDP entered the election with no limbs and convinced itself it could triumph.
“It is noteworthy that Atiku also acknowledged this reality during his press conference, when he bemoaned that the LP had stolen his party’s votes in the South-east and South-south,” Mr. Alake said.