The Head of ICT at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Oluwadara Oluwalana, sees no issue with the manual backup for the transmission of results in the Electoral Act 2026.
Oluwalana said this on Sunday at the Citizens’ Townhall on the 2026 Electoral Act, citing other countries that adopted a similar measure.
READ ALSO: Electoral Act 2026 Still Contains Loopholes — Ex-INEC Official
“I would also like to speak about the manual part of the process. It should not be an issue. I think we should be looking at how we solve the disputes that arise. For example, as Senator Umeh mentioned, how do we resolve these disputes when they happen?
“When India started real-time elections, they had to re-incorporate manual backups because a lot of disputes came up. As you saw with the technology recently, where the ‘glitch’ necessitated a change, we have simply made provisions for everything.
“Our focus now should be: how do we move forward? How do we ensure we resolve the issues that emerge between the IReV (INEC Result Viewing Portal), the BVAS, and the manual records? I believe we have the right technology to try it out in this election.”
Seun: Do you think on election day all the telecom companies can come together and deliver a good network for the election?
Oluwadara: Yes, I believe telecom operators can come together and make it work. I think we have the capacity now.
Oluwadara Oluwalana is the Head of ICT,… pic.twitter.com/UmP5qj07SK
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President Bola Tinubu assented to the Electoral Act 2026 some weeks back. However, critics have faulted the law, which provides for the electronic transmission of results but makes room for a manual backup in case of technological issues.
