Our Reporter, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday criticised the Senate’s reconsidered position on real-time electronic transmission of election results, describing it as “being clever by half” and a covert attempt to undermine credible elections.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the PDP said the Senate’s introduction of an addendum permitting manual transmission where technology is said to fail amounted to a disguised rejection of electronic transmission, despite public opposition to the earlier decision.
The party argued that manual transmission is already adequately provided for under the Electoral Act, noting that the current push for electronic transmission is intended to introduce a second-layer authentication that would prevent the manipulation of results between polling units and collation centres.
According to the PDP, this malpractice has historically plagued Nigeria’s electoral process.
“It is inconceivable that the same BVAS technology which successfully undertakes accreditation throughout an election would suddenly become unreliable for the transmission of results and accreditation data arising from that same exercise,” the statement said.
The opposition party further alleged that resistance to electronic transmission was driven by fear among some lawmakers, singling out Senate President Godswill Akpabio, whom it claimed remained “haunted by the ghost of his 2019 election loss,” which it said was influenced by the deployment of technology to curb overvoting.
The PDP urged members of the Conference Committee to adopt the version of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill passed by the House of Representatives as the harmonised position, if they were genuinely committed to delivering credible elections in 2027.
It warned that failure to do so could damage Nigeria’s democracy and leave a lasting stain on those opposed to electronic transmission.
The party also called on Nigerians to remain steadfast in their demand for real-time electronic transmission of election results, insisting that the country’s democracy was “far too valuable to be left in the hands of politicians alone.”
