Ebun Francis|
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday said it only used an electronic server as an experiment during Anambra and Osun governorship elections held in 2018 but did not adopt it for the 2019 presidential election.
INEC national commissioner, Solomon Soyebi, who made the disclosure during a retreat for the electoral umpire’s staff in Osun, said the commission jettisoned the idea of using a server for 2019 general elections over some factors including the late release of its budget.
Soyebi said, “We piloted the use of transmission of election results electronically in Sokoto, in Anambra, even in Osun. What happened was that we were trying to pilot to see the desirability of such technology in our electoral process.”
“First, our budget came out very late, there was also issue (with) the electoral act. For these and some other reasons, the commission did not adopt that option. 2019 elections were conducted according to Law.
“We used the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we used the electoral act and our guidelines for 2019 elections. If you look at the three instruments carefully, the issue of server was not highlighted.
“Once in a while, you will see an experiment going on but we have to pilot it before we will deploy wholesale for election. We did not use it because of circumstances beyond the control of the commission.”
It will be recalled that following the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23 presidential election, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar rejected the result, insisting that the results gotten from the purported INEC server showed they won the election.
INEC has since maintained that no such server exists.
Atiku’s suit challenging the outcome of the election is ongoing at the presidential election petition tribunal.
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