A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mustapha Lecky, has warned that adopting real-time electronic transmission of election results in Nigeria would be premature and potentially dangerous, arguing the country is neither legally nor technically prepared for instant uploads from polling units.
Lecky made the comments during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, responding to heightened public debate after the Senate declined this week to amend Section 60 of the Electoral Act to require officers to electronically transmit results from polling units to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (RVP). The Senate decision triggered intense backlash from advocates who say electronic transmission would speed results and reduce opportunities for manipulation.
But Lecky urged caution. “I think it doesn’t really make sense to me that we should be talking about instantaneous transmission of results live as it is happening from the polling area. It doesn’t make sense because we don’t do electronic voting anywhere,” he said, stressing that Nigeria still relies on paper ballots that must be counted manually at polling units.
“People are still coming with paper ballots… you have to count them for everybody to see one by one… before you now fill out the form EC8A, which is the most important document that needs to be filled and signed by all the agents representing the parties,” he told the programme. He argued that electronic transmission is logically tied to electronic voting, a system Nigeria has not adopted: “Are we doing electronic voting? We are very far away from it.”
Lecky also highlighted serious infrastructure and security gaps that would complicate nationwide electronic transmission. “For electronic transmission, we are not ready. We are not technically ready,” he said, citing inconsistent mobile network coverage across many polling units and fragile digital resilience that could expose the process to cyber risks. He urged lawmakers and electoral managers to “take the cue from even more mature democracies,” noting that even well-established systems encounter challenges.
Rather than rush to legislate live uploads, Lecky recommended that INEC focus on making existing digital tools work reliably. He pointed to the Result Viewing Portal and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) — technologies already used to record and publish results — and said the commission should “rely on what is currently available and make sure it works perfectly, and it can work perfectly.”
Proponents of electronic transmission argue it would increase transparency, reduce delays and limit opportunities for result manipulation. According to earlier reports, a majority of senators expressed support for e-transmission during recent discussions in the upper chamber. Supporters also say phased rollouts, robust pilot programmes and legal safeguards could mitigate many risks.
Lecky’s intervention underscores the practical and legal challenges that must be addressed if Nigeria is to move toward electronic transmission or electronic voting. Key issues include nationwide network and power reliability at polling units, cybersecurity and incident-response capacity, legal and procedural frameworks for electronic ballots and results, and comprehensive training for election officials and party agents.
The debate is likely to continue. For now, Lecky’s position will bolster calls for a cautious, staged approach: strengthen and audit current systems, invest in infrastructure and cybersecurity, pilot electronic solutions in controlled environments, and only then consider mandated, live transmission of polling-unit results.
