2019: INEC reveals how it will announce results

The Independent National Electoral Commission, has stated that apart
from giving physical copies of results of the 2019 elections to party
agents, it will also be announcing the results electronically.

The commission said the same mechanism would be used in the Ekiti and
Osun governorship elections in July and September, respectively.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this when he visited
the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission,
Prof. Umar Danbatta, in Abuja on Tuesday.

Yakubu said, "We are planning for full deployment (of electronic and
manual transmission) this year in governorship elections in Ekiti and
Osun. Thereafter we intend to deploy the system in the 2019 general
elections.

"INEC has developed the hardware and software. However, we rely on the
operators for the transmission of both the figures and scanned images
of result sheets. We wish to assure Nigerians that while we transmit
the raw figures from polling units, scanned images of the result
sheets will also be transmitted electronically in addition to physical
copies given to party agents at polling units."

Yakubu appealed to the NCC as the regulator to facilitate a meeting
between INEC and the telecommunications operators with the aim of
assisting the electoral body in the conduct of the election.

The INEC boss added, "Similarly, we would like the NCC to facilitate
discussions with operators on ways of enhancing their corporate social
responsibility to Nigeria's electoral process. An immediate area of
interest to INEC is how the operators can help in voter education and
publicity.

"Towards the 2019 general elections, we would like the operators in
collaboration with INEC, to send bulk SMS and possibly voice messages
as well on the imperative of peaceful elections, the collection of
Permanent Voter Cards by registered voters and directional information
on the location of polling units for easy access to voters."