Governor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom has admonished President Muhammadu Buhari against giving assent to the recently-passed electoral act amendment bill if it does not provide for the electronic transmission of election results.<\/p>\n
Recall that the senate and\u00a0house of representatives, at separate sessions in July, had passed the bill \u2014 but not after heated argument at both chambers over the electronic transmission of results.<\/p>\n
The senate had passed the bill and granted the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) powers to certify coverage, subject to approval by the national assembly before\u00a0INEC can be allowed to adopt electronic transmission of election results.<\/p>\n
The lower chamber on its part said\u00a0INEC can take the decision on electronic transmission \u201cwhere practicable\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was earlier reported that the NCC in 2018 recommended\u00a0the electronic transmission of election results ahead of the 2019 elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n The senate claimed it attached conditions to the electronic transmission of election results because only 50 percent of the country\u2019s polling units could use technology to transmit results.<\/p>\n Ortom while speaking in an interview with Vanguard accused the lawmakers elected on the\u00a0platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of collaborating with Buhari against adopting transmission of election results electronically.<\/p>\n He said the security challenges in the north \u201care created by politicians to ensure that no election takes place so that they will rig the election\u201d.<\/p>\n He said at a time when the world is going digital, it is out of place for Nigeria to keep doing things with the analogue system.<\/p>\n