Former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini, has challenged Joash Amupitan’s position on election result recording, insisting that candidates and their agents are entitled under the law to record polling unit results and operate their own situation rooms.
Igini made the remarks during an appearance on ARISE News, where he discussed the interpretation of electoral law concerning the recording, transmission and publication of election results.
He argued that candidates and their agents have the right to document results announced by presiding officers at polling units and transmit the information to their respective situation rooms for collation and monitoring.
“We have eighteen candidates. They are free under the law to have their IReV, situation room. They are free under the law to publicise, to report what INEC had officially [announced],” Igini said.
The former INEC commissioner also highlighted what he described as the distinction between the announcement of results and the formal declaration of an election winner.
Questioning why candidates and party agents should be prevented from sharing results they had lawfully obtained, Igini asked: “Who now says that result that have been legally, officially announced by the presiding officer, that the party agent that are entitled to have that result cannot send it to their situation room? Who says that?”
His comments on ARISE News come amid discussions over the interpretation of electoral law and the rights of candidates and political parties to independently document and report polling unit results.
Igini’s argument centres on the distinction between recording results announced at polling units and the formal declaration of an election winner by the appropriate electoral authority.
