The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has said that the claim by the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, that the Independent National Electoral Commission used a central server for the collation and transmission of 2019 election results was false.
The tribunal said that the petitioner failed to establish the claim of electronic transmission and collation of election results from different levels in his petition and that the evidence submitted by the petitioner to substantiate the allegation could not be relied upon.
The Tribunal ruled that; “As can be clearly seen, the collation and distribution as shown on exhibit 28 is manual. From the polling unit under the electoral Act is manual. There is no provision from exhibit B27 or 28, or transmission of election result electronically either by the use smart reader or other means at any level of an election.
“There is no provision in the amended electoral Act that empowers the first respondent (INEC) or any of its officers….the regulations and guidelines which allows transmission of any result electronically to any server.
“The electoral law outlaw the use of electronic voting. It is stipulated to have been prohibited. However, even if there is no electronic voting, there is no provision of the electoral act which provides for the collation and transmission of election result across Nigeria.”
