INEC Sets the Record Straight: IReV Is a Window, Not a Calculator

The Independent National Electoral Commission has moved to clear the air over what its much-discussed Results Viewing Portal, IReV, actually does. Contrary to a wave of public expectation, the platform is not built to tally or compute election figures. Its sole job, the commission insists, is to offer a transparent window into the results as they emerge from polling units across the country.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday, INEC National Commissioner Prof. Kunle Ajayi addressed the confusion head-on. He assured Nigerians that every result from the Osun State governorship election will find its way onto the IReV portal, vowing that this time around, the commission will sharpen its transmission game. “All the results will go on IReV, I can assure you of that. What is going to be different is that we are going to perform better. That is immediately the results are ready, they will capture them and send them to the IReV through the same BVAS,” Ajayi said.

But then came the clarification that many may not have seen coming. Ajayi stressed that the IReV is not some digital adding machine, nor is it an automated collation system. He took aim at a prevailing piece of misinformation that appears to have taken root in the public mind. “The IReV is a viewing centre. There’s a misinformation when it comes to the function of the IReV. The IReV is not an adding machine. It’s not an adding system because some people are expecting that immediately results are coming in, they’ll be adding like that; at the end of the day, there will be a gross trader,” he explained.

In other words, the portal is a showcase, not a scorekeeper. For those eager to see a running total, Ajayi pointed out that the arithmetic is open to anyone. Individuals, civil society groups, and institutions are free to pull the figures from each polling unit as they appear on IReV and do their own collation. The key question, he suggested, is a simpler one: “But what is important is that the results transmitted to the IReV, are they different from what came up from the PU?” If the portal faithfully reflects what happened at the polling unit, then the transparency goal is met, regardless of who does the final math.