Senator Sharafadeen Alli who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Act, has declared that it will soon become mandatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload election results.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, Alli noted that making election results upload mandatory ‘is one of the things that we are going to do’.
The senator explained that, under the Electoral Act, 2022, INEC is not obligated to upload results.
‘Under the current law, it is not mandatory for INEC to upload — that is what the court has said; that is the law. Under the current one (Electoral Law), it is not, but as we are going forward, it is going to be mandatory,’ he said.
Alli also noted that the committee is considering other electoral reforms.
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He stated that the committee was focused on ensuring the resolution of all pre-election matters ahead of elections and upgrading election technology.
‘It is just to ask INEC to make sure that we improve our technology and ensure that things are there. We looked at elections and election petitions. In terms of legislation about election petitions, what we think is all pre-election matters [should be] resolved before the election,’ Alli explained.
Africa Today News, New York reports that he went on to add that the committee considered a scenario where election petitions were concluded before the swearing-in of elected officials, to streamline the process and prevent situations that necessitate off-cycle elections.
Affirming the committee’s commitment to technological advancements and acknowledging past disappointments, he emphasised the need for improvement in technology, particularly addressing issues like the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) malfunctioning in previous elections.