Mike Igini, a lawyer and former Cross River State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), has cautioned that the contentious requirement for real-time electronic transmission of polling unit results may cost most federal MPs their seats in 2027.
In a statement, Igini contended that previous Assemblies had refused to address “well-documented election rigging vulnerabilities” in the statute, such as the type of proviso being proposed by the Senate to qualify direct electronic transmission, “for reasons of convenience and party loyalty.”
He urged the parliamentarians to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors, who he said lost elections because they refused to fix well-known flaws in the country’s electoral system.
“I urge Honorable and Distinguished Senators to heed the salutary lessons from the misfortunes that befell their predecessors as the National Assembly convenes to reconcile the divergent versions of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, particularly with regard to the unwavering demand by the Nigerian populace for mandatory electronic transmission of election results directly from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV,” he said.
He continued by saying, “Those who denied them re-election party tickets took advantage of these flaws to sabotage polling-unit results during their tenure, making them victims of the very flaws they refused to fix.”
Igini presented what he called empirical evidence from election cycles from 2007 to 2023, claiming that in spite of obtaining alternative platforms, the majority of incumbent lawmakers who were denied party tickets by governors and party leaders were defeated during collation due to manipulation of polling unit results.
Right now, the 10th Assembly is in danger of repeating this regrettable trend.Given the likelihood of an unprotected electronic transmission of polling unit results, members who are not popular with or in the good graces of their respective state governors or party leaders will undoubtedly be refused tickets. Additionally, he cautioned, it will be extremely challenging to convert widespread support from the electorate into an electoral victory.
