Former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, has thrown her weight behind the push for the e-transmission of election results in the country, saying that with the e-transmission of election results, nobody will be able to alter results or engage in manipulations.

She maintained that making electronic transmission mandatory would significantly reduce the manipulation of results and ultimately curb electoral malpractices. “If we use this electronic system properly, nobody will be able to alter results or engage in manipulation,” said the founder of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance.

While stressing that democracy belongs to the citizens and not to political office holders, the former Vice President of the World Bank, in a statement, accused some members of the Senate of attempting to undermine electoral transparency by opposing moves to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory in law.

She alleged that certain lawmakers were plotting to frustrate reforms that would guarantee real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units. Ezekwesili said the process of e-transmission was straightforward and had already been successfully implemented in previous off-cycle elections.

With e-transmission, once voting concludes at a polling unit, results are entered into the prescribed Form EC8A, signed by the presiding officer and party agents, and subsequently uploaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal for public access.