The Presidential Election Petitions Court has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot be forced to e-transmit election results. In a judgement delivered on Wednesday, September 6, the five-man panel of the Presidential Election petition Court PEPC led by Justice Haruna Tsammani held that INEC was at liberty to decide the mode of transmission of election results during the presidential election on February 25, 2023.
According to the tribunal, sections 52 and 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, gives INEC the liberty to prescribe the manner in which election results were transmitted during the poll.
The Tribunal consequently dismissed the petition of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, which argued that the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be annulled on the basis of the “failure” of the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to upload election results electronically in real time.