The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has outlined how polling‑unit results will be transmitted during the governorship elections scheduled for Saturday across all states. INEC Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, explained on Arise TV that the commission has incorporated lessons learned from the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. Controversy had surrounded the delayed uploading of results in the presidential race, with major opposition parties—including the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party—citing this as a basis for rejecting the declaration of All Progressives Congress candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as winner.
Okoye noted that current law mandates a dual mode of result transmission. When polls close at each polling unit, the Presiding Officer (PO) records the scores of all parties on form EC8A, the official polling‑unit result sheet. The PO signs and stamps the sheet, and the party agent (if present) also countersigns; copies are then provided to the agents and to the police. The original result sheet is scanned and uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal for public access, together with the accreditation data from that unit. The physical result sheet and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) device are subsequently taken to the Registration Area Collation Centre. There, the Collation Officer can examine the original results, the BVAS device, and the transmitted accreditation data, fulfilling the dual‑mode requirement prescribed by law.
Okoye assured that results will be transmitted in real time as soon as polls close at each unit. “The commission is determined to improve on its previous performance,” he said, emphasizing that the valuable lessons from past elections have been integrated into planning, processes, and deployment strategies.
Regarding preparedness, Okoye stated that both the state assembly and governorship elections are underway. All BVAS machines and other sensitive election materials have been dispatched from the Central Bank to the various state offices. The commission has reconfigured every BVAS unit to ensure optimal performance and to prevent the challenges experienced in earlier elections. Refresher training has also been provided to all staff categories involved in the exercise.
In total, Nigeria will hold 28 governorship elections and 993 state‑assembly constituency elections. “It’s a huge election, and INEC will be paying very close attention to what is happening in the various states,” Okoye concluded.
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