Nigeria’s Supreme Court says that the failure in the functionality and deployment of the Result Viewing (IReV) technology portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could dampen the zeal of voters in future elections.
Supreme Court Justice, Justice, John Okoro, made the observation on Thursday, while delivering judgment in the appeal by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, against President Bola Tinubu’s declared victory at the February 2023 presidential election.
Okoro said: “Truth must be told, the non-functioning of the IReV may also reduce confidence of the voting public in the electoral process.”
Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi, who contested against President Bola Tinubu in Nigeria’s 2023 presidential elections, had challenged Tinubu’s victory at the poll.
Atiku and Obi approached the Supreme Court seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s election on the grounds of double nomination, alleged certificate forgery, non-transmission of results electronically, 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), amongst others.
The court however gave judgement in favour of President Tinubu, on Thursday, on the ground that the matter filed against him lacked merit.
On the non-functionality of the IReV, the Justice Okoro-led panel held that the non-availability of election results on IReV was not a ground for the nullification of the February 2023 presidential election.
He said by Section 135 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance of electronic transmission of results.
