INEC Speaks On Slow Update On IReV Election Result Portal, Allays Fears

Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, has allayed fears over the slow uploading of polling unit results of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly election results on its result viewing portal (IRev).

Voting has ended in most of the over 176,000 polling units where the election was held across the country on Saturday.

Some Nigerians had taken to social media to express their frustrations as to why almost 24 hours after voting ended only scanty results of the polls had been uploaded on the portal, contrary to the promise by INEC to upload the results on the portal as soon as counting ended.

In a statement by its Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, INEC said it was aware of the challenges and blamed technical hitches.

The commission allayed fears that the portal was compromised, saying the IReV remained secured.

It said the problem which had started seeing improvement since Saturday night was not due to any interference by hackers. It attributed the problem to routine glitches common to technological platforms.

INEC assured Nigerians that the results are safe on both the result sheets and the IReV.

It added that its technical team is working to resolve the issue totally.

FULL STATEMENT HERE:
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION
PRESS RELEASE

CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED WITH THE INEC RESULTS VIEWING PORTAL (IReV)

The Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady. The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.

The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.

Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.

Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.

We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal. These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.

While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.

We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate.

Festus Okoye Esq
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee
Sunday 26th February 2023
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