Media organizations have been cautioned against announcing election results based on privately collated figures during the 2027 general elections.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC , Professor Joash Amupitan, gave the warning on Tuesday October 6 in Abuja while speaking at a national stakeholders’ meeting organized to mark 100 days to the 2027 general election.
Professor Amupitan said media organizations must verify election-related information with the commission before publishing or broadcasting such results.
He also urged media houses to establish fact-checking desks and make use of digital forensic tools to confirm information, particularly during the election period.
The INEC chairman said the media had an important role to play in ensuring that Nigerians received accurate information during the elections.
“The third is partnership with you in the media. I repeat the charge I gave to the members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors recently in Enugu. NigerianCulture Magazine
“Establish fact-checking desks and use digital forensic tools in verifying your information. Verify with INEC before you publish.
“Resist the declaration of privately collated results, because under the Electoral Act, the authority to declare results rests exclusively with the Commission in national elections.
“It is far more important to be right than to be the first” he said.
Earlier, the electoral commission said any technical failure involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will not automatically halt the collation of results in the 2027 elections.
Professor Amupitan, stated this on during a question-and-answer session at the commission’s world press conference and stakeholders meeting.
He made the clarification while responding to concerns over a possible recurrence of the technical difficulties that disrupted the transmission of polling-unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal during the 2023 general elections.
He said the commission was upgrading both the BVAS and IReV platforms to improve their performance ahead of the 2027 elections.
According to him, INEC has acquired 57,000 additional BVAS devices, equipped with inbuilt batteries, while many existing batteries are also being replaced.
“When we’re talking about technology upgrades, I told you that we are doing some work with regard to our BVAS and also our IReV to ensure optimal performance. It is not possible for BVAS to fail everywhere. We are doing everything possible; that is why we have even acquired an additional 57,000 BVAS, as well as inbuilt batteries.
“We are changing most of the inbuilt batteries to ensure that we don’t have any issues relating to the transmission of the results,” Prof. Amupitan said.
The INEC chairman explained that a failure to transmit results from an individual polling unit or a group of polling units would not stop voting or other electoral activities in unaffected areas.
“But if for any reason there is an inability to transmit from a particular polling unit or from a group of polling units, that will not stop the election from continuing in other places. But it is at the end of it all that you now determine the number of those that are involved,” he said.
Professor Amupitan said collation could still proceed if the affected polling units did not have an impact on the overall outcome of the election.
“And if they do not affect the result of the election, that will not stop the collation. However, efforts will be made,” he stated.
He, however, stressed that the Electoral Act provides for an election to be postponed in a polling unit where BVAS fails and the problem cannot be resolved.
