Nigeria IReV Election Result Discrepancies: 2023 Integrity Challenges Examined

• Nigeria's electoral system historically suffered from a manual collation process prone to manipulation, leading to public distrust.
• The INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), introduced in 2020, aimed to enhance transparency by allowing public access to electronically uploaded polling unit results (Form EC8A).
• Despite IReV, significant discrepancies emerged in the 2023 presidential election, exemplified by an investigation into Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State.
• An independent review of 1,116 polling units in Obio/Akpor found a stark difference between INEC's declared results for the APC and Labour Party and the figures recorded on the uploaded Form EC8A documents.
• The investigation also revealed apparent alterations and mutilations on some of the result sheets, highlighting ongoing challenges to Nigeria 2023 election integrity.

This comprehensive tally by PREMIUM TIMES presented a dramatically different outcome: the APC's vote count was recorded as 17,158, while the Labour Party's total stood at 73,311 votes.

Historically, Nigeria's electoral process has been plagued by a lack of public trust, often perceived as a "black box" where votes might not genuinely count. This perception has fueled voter apathy, particularly among younger demographics. Before the 2023 General Election, the system relied heavily on a physical chain of custody for results. Presiding officers at polling units would count ballots, record outcomes on Form EC8A, secure endorsements from party agents, announce the results, and then physically transport these materials to designated collation centers. Here, collation officers would aggregate results at ward, local government area (LGA), and state levels, culminating in the returning officer declaring a winner. While a transparent process would ideally involve uncompromised counting, transportation, collation, and announcement, this manual system was frequently susceptible to distortions and manipulations at various stages.

In a significant move to address these vulnerabilities and enhance transparency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) introduced its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in August 2020. This innovation marked the first time citizens could access polling-unit result sheets, specifically Form EC8A, online. The portal was designed to facilitate the electronic upload of these result sheets, allowing the public to view results as the collation process unfolded. IReV thus created a publicly accessible digital record of polling-unit outcomes, making independent inspection and auditing of results more feasible, although it did not replace the traditional manual collation system entirely. Further bolstering this digital shift, the Senate, in February preceding the 2023 elections, reversed an earlier position, formally permitting the electronic transmission of polling-unit results to the IReV.

Despite the advancements brought by the INEC Result Viewing Portal, its introduction did not fully resolve the fundamental challenges associated with conducting credible elections in Nigeria. Instead, it shifted the focal point of potential issues. While IReV aimed to increase transparency, Form EC8A continues to serve as the primary collation document, especially in instances where network or internet connectivity failures impede electronic transmission. The expectation was that if results recorded at polling units increasingly aligned with those eventually collated and announced, scrutiny would then shift towards pre-voting and during-voting irregularities, such as vote-buying, intimidation, violence, and voter suppression, rather than post-election result management.

However, the reliance on IReV data has revealed its own set of limitations, which can constrain the overall transparency achievable during the collation of election results in Nigeria. These limitations became particularly evident during the 2023 General Election. Controversies arose from claims that results announced by INEC in certain areas, notably parts of Rivers State, did not correspond with the figures recorded and announced at individual polling units. This highlighted that even with a digital viewing portal, the integrity of the electoral process, particularly concerning Nigeria IReV election result discrepancies, remained a significant concern.

Following the presidential election on February 25, 2023, an independent investigation by PREMIUM TIMES meticulously reviewed polling-unit result sheets uploaded to the INEC IReV for the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers State. This particular LGA was significant because INEC had declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner with 80,239 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was credited with 3,829 votes. The investigation, published in April 2023 after several weeks of manual analysis of the uploaded documents, uncovered a stark disparity between the figures officially declared by INEC and the results documented on numerous polling-unit forms.

The independent review encompassed 1,116 out of the 1,211 polling units across Obio/Akpor's 17 wards, representing approximately 94.13 percent of the council's total polling units. This comprehensive tally by PREMIUM TIMES presented a dramatically different outcome: the APC's vote count was recorded as 17,158, while the Labour Party's total stood at 73,311 votes. Furthermore, the review identified clear instances of alterations and mutilations on some of the result sheets, raising serious questions about Nigeria 2023 election integrity and the reliability of the Form EC8A electronic transmission process. These findings underscore the persistent Nigerian electoral law challenges and the critical need for meticulous cross-verification of IReV data against physical records.

Lawyers involved in Nigerian electoral litigation or advising political parties must be aware that despite the IReV portal, significant discrepancies and potential alterations in election results persist, requiring meticulous cross-referencing of IReV data with physical Form EC8A records for any challenges or defenses.

Source: Original reporting via independent media analysis.