The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot be forced to e-transmit election results, according to the Presidential Election Petitions Court. The five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court PEPC, chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani, ruled on September 6 and stated that INEC was free to choose the method of transmitting election results during the presidential election on February 25, 2023.
The tribunal claims that sections 52 and 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 provide INEC the freedom to specify how election results were communicated during the election.
As a result, the Tribunal rejected the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate. The petition demanded that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) victory be annulled and cited the “failure” of the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to electronically upload election results in real-time.