INEC says it has capacity for electronic transmission in remote areas

By our reporter| The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suggested it has the capacity to transmit election results electronically from remote areas across the country.

Lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly were at each other’s throats during the week over electronic transmission of results earlier in the week.

According to the lawmakers opposed to sacrosanct electronic transmission of results, some parts of the country do not have the required network coverage.

An Executive Commissioner at the Nigerian Communications Commission, Adeleke Adewolu, told lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Friday that only 50 percent of the country has the 3G coverage required for transmission.

But speaking on Channels Television breakfast show over the weekend, Festus Okoye, INEC’s National Chairman and Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, said the Commission’s position was clear.

He said, “We have uploaded results from very remote areas, even from areas where you have to use human carriers to access.”

“So, we have made our own position very clear, that we have the capacity and we have the will to deepen the use of technology in the electoral process.

“But our powers are given by the constitution and the law, and we will continue to remain within the ambit and confines of the power granted to the commission by the constitution and the law.”