In order to make the recently modified Electoral Act easier for voters to understand, the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, has urged the Nigerian government to demythologize it.

What Nigeria needs, according to INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan, is a straightforward electoral law that is easy for all Nigerians to grasp and is written in a simplified manner.

At the Civil Society Network on Election Integrity and the Electoral Act’s town hall gathering in Abuja on Sunday, Prof. Amupitan made the request.

Given that Nigeria is a very diverse nation, particularly in terms of its political and electoral environments, the INEC Chairman’s demand came amid the debate surrounding the real-time transmission of election results, which he claimed has to be explained.

“We’ve gone through the entire Electoral Act and examined some of the controversial aspects, particularly in a nation with such a diverse population,” he stated.

Nigeria genuinely needs what I refer to as simple legislation—that is, legislation written in plain language—so that every Nigerian can comprehend and value the terms of each part.

When INEC entered the picture, we believed that the transmission of the results needed to be required. To be honest, though, our only issue was defining what we meant by “real time.”

For example, in the last FCT area council election in Kuje, the results for five area councils were released on schedule, but the Kabi ward results weren’t released until Sunday. Our policemen were unreachable via phone, so we were unable to contact them.

Transmission is not a problem in my opinion; rather, the sufficiency of our network is the issue.
You anticipate being able to send your results without any obstacles in a location like FCT.
“However, there was a situation where coverage prevented us from transmitting results in real time.”