FG's Inability To Release Funds Early Stopped Us From Using Servers During 2019 Election...INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission has said it only experimented the electronic transmission of results through the use of a server and it was not deployed in the 2019 general elections.

INEC said it after clamour rose for the commission to make it server available for the Peoples Democratic Party and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

The commission had insisted it did not make use of a server in 2019 despite budgeting and receiving N2.27 billion was budgeted for server-related procurement items.

Solomon Soyebi, Osun State, INEC National Commissioner, explained that the issue of the server was dropped while adding that the commission only experimented the use of a server in the Anambra, Sokoto and Osun elections.

“We piloted the use of transmission of election results electronically in Sokoto, in Anambra, even in Osun. What happened was that we were trying to pilot to see the desirability of such technology in our electoral process.

“Once in a while, you will see an experiment going on but we have to pilot it before we will deploy wholesale for election. We did not use it because of circumstances beyond the control of the Commission,” Soyebi said.

Soyebi attributed the inability to make use of the server to the late release of funds for the election.

He said, “First, our budget came out very late. There was also (an) issue (with) the Electoral Act. For these and some other reasons, the commission did not adopt that option; 2019 elections were conducted according to the law.

“We used the Constitution of the Federal Republic, we used the Electoral Act and our guidelines for 2019 elections. If you look at the three instruments carefully, the issue of the server was not highlighted.”