…Atiku: Hybrid System Could Jeopardise Electoral Integrity
By Franklin Adole
Senator Henry Seriake Dickson has described the Senate’s reversal on electronic transmission of election results as “incremental progress” for Nigeria’s democracy, even as he acknowledged widespread public anger over the initial decision.
The Senate had come under intense pressure following its earlier handling of Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act amendment bill, a move that triggered protests and sharp criticism from civil society groups and political actors who feared a rollback of gains in electoral transparency.
At an emergency plenary, the Red Chamber rescinded its previous position after the Chief Whip, Senator Mohammed Monguno, moved a motion to revisit the controversial clause. The motion, seconded by Minority Leader Senator Abba Moro, led to the amendment of the provision to mandate that results “shall be transmitted electronically from each polling unit to IReV” after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and available party agents.
However, the Senate inserted a proviso stating that where electronic transmission fails due to communication challenges, the signed EC8A form shall remain the primary source for collation and declaration of results.
Reacting during an interview on ARISE Television, Dickson, a member of the Senate Electoral Committee and former governor of Bayelsa State, said he was deeply disappointed when he first heard of the Senate’s earlier stance while in Bayelsa mourning the death of his brother.
“This was what we had worked on for nearly two years,” he said, noting that lawmakers had engaged in several harmonisation meetings and consultations with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before arriving at an agreed position.
He commended the House of Representatives for passing what had been collectively agreed and praised Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and members of the House Committee for standing by the earlier consensus.
Dickson said he shares in the protests and agitations expressed by Nigerians, recalling his advocacy for electronic transmission dating back to the 9th Senate, when lawmakers took a formal division on the issue.
Upon returning to Abuja after his mourning period, he said he confronted members of the Senate leadership over the development and was assured that corrective action would be taken, culminating in the motion for rescission.
While openly disagreeing with the proviso validating manual collation in cases of network failure, Dickson defended the outcome as the best achievable under current parliamentary realities.
“In parliament, you don’t get all you want at the time you want,” he said. “It involves lobbying, negotiation and consensus-building. What happened was not a loss to democracy. It was incremental progress.”
He noted that the opposition lacks the numbers to insist on its preferred version of the clause, making compromise inevitable.
Clarifying misconceptions, Dickson emphasised that Nigeria does not practise electronic voting and that real-time monitoring begins only after results are declared at polling units and uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
According to him, the real danger to electoral integrity has historically occurred at ward and local government collation centres, not at polling units where votes are cast and counted openly.
“The mandatory electronic transmission of polling unit results to IReV addresses the manipulation that occurs at collation centres,” he said. “Candidates and parties can independently collate results from polling units and know who has won.”
He added that INEC has assured lawmakers of its capacity to transmit results nationwide and insisted that the communication-failure exception should remain rare, not routine.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar cautioned that combining electronic and manual transmission could undermine electoral credibility. Speaking after a visit to former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.), in Minna, Atiku said Nigerians had expected full electronic transmission at all levels of the electoral process.
“What Nigerians were expecting was electronic transmission of results across the various levels of the election. What we got instead was a mixture of electronic and manual transmission, which is going to cause more confusion and could jeopardise our electoral system,” he said.
Atiku called on opposition political parties to unite in pursuing stronger reforms, insisting that the issue of electronic transmission must not be allowed to fade.
The Senate has since constituted a 12-member Conference Committee chaired by Senator Simon Lalong to harmonise its version of the bill with that of the House of Representatives before transmission to the President for assent.
For Dickson, however, the responsibility ultimately lies with citizens.
“I encourage Nigerians to sensitise and mobilise to their polling units,” he said. “Vote for credible candidates and insist that your votes count and are transmitted on IReV.”
“Sensitise and mobilise. Don’t give up on our democracy.”