Elections: Court orders INEC to paste, transmit all poll results electronically
A Federal High Court in Abuja, has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit all the results of Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly elections electronically in accordance with its guidelines and regulations.
Delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, also ordered the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after the completion of all the polling units voting and results’ procedures.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the judge further directed the commission to conspicuously paste the publication of its result posters EC60(E) at polling units after completing the EC8A result sheets.
Justice Egwuatu further ordered INEC to enforce the observance and compliance of Section 27(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 in the distribution of electoral materials during the conduct of the polls.
He also ordered INEC to engage the services of independent, competent, and reliable logistic companies who are non-partisans or known supporters of any political party for the distribution of election materials and personnel.
Egwuatu held that since the electoral umpire averred in its affidavit filed before the court that it was aware of its responsibilities under the law and had not failed to carry them out, granting the prayers sought by the applicants would not do any harm to the commission but instead, energise its performance.
The judgment was sequel to a suit filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom, Uduakobong Udoh, including 13 of the state House of Assembly candidates for the March 18 elections.
The plaintiffs, in the originating summons marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/334/2023 dated and filed on March 15 by their lawyer, Moses Usoh-Abia, had sued INEC as the sole defendant.
The applicants, who sought seven reliefs, prayed the court for an order of mandamus compelling INEC and all its agents to comply with and enforce the provision of Clause 37 of the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of the Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly elections in Akwa Ibom.
They also prayed the court to mandate the presiding officers of all polling units to conspicuously paste the publication of result posters EC460(E) at the polling units after completing the EC8A result sheets.(NAN)
