INEC explains why 2023 election results can’t be manipulated

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why the results of the 2023 general elections cannot be manipulated.

Prof. Mohammad Kuna, the Special Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said that the electronic transmission of results could not be manipulated due to the nature of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Kuna stated this during a panel discussion at a two-day workshop theme, ‘The role and impact of Digital Technologies in facilitating Peaceful Elections in Nigeria’.

The event was organised by the National Peace Committee (NPC), headed by a former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd) and The Kukah Centre on Tuesday in Abuja.

The BVAS is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters.

He said, “With the nature of BVAS, the uploaded polling units (PUs) results cannot be manipulated. The machine was not designed to edit the photographic results uploaded and sent to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), and once sent, cannot be recalled.” 

Reacting to the deployment of the commission’s ICT Director, Engr. Chidi Nwafor, to Enugu State as an Administrative Secretary, Kuna said, “INEC has 37 offices across the federation and 774 local government offices across the local government areas in the country. It has over 16,000 staff spread across the country. The deployment and redeployment of staff is a normal exercise.

“INEC reserves the right to deploy its staff in places it thinks they can best perform the task given to them. Before this latest redeployment, there had been massive redeployment of over 500 staff members that didn’t raise any concern.

“This is necessary to help the commission to deal with the issues coming out of the 2023 elections. Every general election, these redeployments are normal. We did it in 2010, 2018, and we have done that of 2022. I don’t think this is abnormal.”