The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has achieved a new feet via the introduction of a worthwhile public election result viewing portal called “The INEC Result Viewing (IReV)”.

The commissioner who explained that IRev would enable Nigerians to view polling unit results in real-time as voting ends on election day made this known in a statement on Thursday,  issued by the National Commissioner, and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, after a meeting held in Abuja where Okoye said that the commission at the meeting, approved the introduction of the IRev which is meant to further strengthen its election management process, and enhance the transparency of the system.

Okoye further disclosed that the innovation would begin from the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election in Nasarawa State which will hold tomorrow, Saturday. Thereafter it will be extended to the Edo and Ondo State governorship elections as well as all subsequent elections. He however noted that the collation of election results shall remain as provided for by law, a manual process of completion of relevant result sheets and their upwards collation until the final results are determined. He  also disclosed that the Nasarawa Central state constituency election result sheet can be accessed from https://inecelectionresults.com

Okoye while expressing hopes that this innovation will improve the transparency in election result management and therefore further consolidate public confidence in the electoral process, added that the commission was aware that result management had remained a major source of mistrust in Nigeria’s electoral process. He showed regards for the citizens’ concerns pertaining to the inconsistency with votes cast and assured that INEC is determined to address any source of this concern through enhancing the level of transparency in the conduct of elections and in the process of releasing results of elections. To buttress this, he said, “It is a fundamental principle of democracy that in elections, votes are not only correctly counted, but that they also count.”

Okoye recalled that in compliance with its commitment to transparency in election management, the commission introduced the Form EC60E, which was a poster version of the primary result sheet, the Form EC8A. He said that this replica of the polling unit result which is pasted at the polling units after votes are counted, recorded, and announced is now widely known as the People’s Form EC8A; this has brought about the increase in transparency in result management.

Okoye however lamented that despite the informative and useful nature of the portal, it has also been abused through the circulation of unofficial and sometimes, false results particularly via social media which leads to tension and casting slanders on the final outcome of elections.