The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has expressed strong support for the real-time electronic transmission of election results ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The NSE president, Ali Rabiu, made this known while reacting to the Senate’s rejection of the proposal of real-time electronic transmission of election results from polling units to INEC’s IReV portal being mandatory.

According to Mr Rabiu, electronic transmission of results offers several technical advantages over the current manual system.

“At NSE, we believe in adopting real-time transmission of election results, as seen in successful implementations in countries like Estonia and India.

“This could have addressed Nigeria’s history of electoral disputes while complying with INEC’s existing tech infrastructure.

“Therefore, we declare our full support for real-time electronic transmission of election,” he said.

Mr Rabiu said that the key reasons for their rejection included poor network coverage, especially in rural areas, cybersecurity, infrastructure deficiencies like unreliable electricity, and the risk of legal disputes, among others.

He, however, said the Senate made the decision without consulting with any professional body like the NSE.

“The Senate chose to retain the current provision, allowing INEC to transmit results “in a manner prescribed by the Commission” rather than enforcing mandatory real-time electronic transmission.

“Let it be on record that the reasons mentioned above do not have the endorsement of any technically proficient professional organisation such as the NSE.

“Electronic transmission of election results offers several technical advantages that could enhance the integrity, efficiency and credibility of Nigeria’s electoral process,” he said.

According to Mr Rabiu, through electronic transmission of election results, Nigeria stands the chance of benefiting from the following reduced risk of manipulation.

He added that manual transfer relied on physical transport of result sheets prone to tampering, loss or alteration during transit.

“Electronic systems use secure protocols like end-to-end encryption and digital signatures to ensure data integrity from polling units to central servers, minimising human intervention.

“Faster collation and announcement: real-time digital uploads enable automated aggregation, cutting result declaration time from days to hours.

“This leverages network technologies like cellular 4G/5G or satellite links in remote areas to bypass logistical delays in our nation’s vast terrain,” he explained.

Mr Rabiu said that Nigeria also stood to benefit from improved accuracy and auditability as digital records eliminate transcription errors common in manual processes.

He added that blockchain or timestamped ledgers provided immutable audit trails, allowing independent verification by stakeholders via Application Programming Interface (API) or dashboards.

He further explained that Nigeria would benefit in terms of cost savings and scalability.

According to him, initial setup costs are offset by reduced printing, transportation and personnel needs for manual handling.

He noted that scalable cloud-based systems could handle the over 176,000 polling units efficiently, with redundancy measures like offline caching for areas with poor connectivity. 

(NAN)