ABUJA — A senior officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suggested that the electoral body has the capacity to transmit election results electronically from remote areas across the country.
Lawmakers in both the upper and lower chambers of the National Assembly had been on heated argument over the electronic transmission of election results earlier in the week.
The House of Representatives was thrown into turmoil on Thursday as lawmakers debated section 52(2) of the electoral amendment act bill, which deals with electronic transmission.
Also on the same day, APC senators forced through a version of the bill at the Senate which forced INEC to seek permission from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Assembly before employing electronic voting in any part of the country.
The lawmakers who opposed the sacrosanct electronic transmission of results have argued that some parts of the country do not have the required network coverage.
An Executive Commissioner of the NCC, Adeleke Adewolu, told the House on Friday that only 50 percent of the country has the 3G coverage required for transmission.
But the National Chairman and Commissioner for Information and Voter Education for INEC, Festus Okoye, said the position of the Commission was clear.
“We have uploaded results from very remote areas, even from areas where you have to use human carriers to access,” he said.
“So, we have made our own position very clear, that we have the capacity and we have the will to deepen the use of technology in the electoral process.
“But our powers are given by the constitution and the law, and we will continue to remain within the ambit and confines of the power granted to the commission by the constitution and the law.”
