The Head of ICT at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Oluwadara Oluwalana, has said that including a manual backup for transmitting election results in the Electoral Act 2026 should not be a concern.
Speaking at the Citizens’ Townhall on the 2026 Electoral Act on Sunday, Oluwalana pointed to examples from other countries that implemented similar measures.
“The manual part of the process should not be an issue. The key is how we handle disputes when they arise,” he said. “When India introduced real-time elections, they also had to maintain manual backups due to disputes. Technology glitches happen, and provisions like this are important.”
He emphasized the importance of integrating the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and manual records efficiently. “We now have the technology to test and resolve these issues in this election,” Oluwalana added.
While President Bola Tinubu recently signed the Electoral Act 2026 into law, some critics have expressed concern that the provision for manual backup could undermine the electronic transmission process.
