The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not obligated to transmit election results electronically.
The five-man tribunal led by Justice Haruna Tsammani made this declaration during the PEPT’s ruling in Abuja on Wednesday, September 6.
Justice Tsammani stated, “There is no provision for the electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act 2022.”
Regarding the method of transmitting election results, the tribunal asserted that INEC has the authority to specify the mode it intends to employ.
“By the provision of Section 52 and Section 65 of the Electoral Act, INEC is at liberty to prescribe the manner in which result can be transmitted. INEC cannot be compelled to electronically transmit result,” the court held.
Furthermore, the tribunal ruled that Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, was unable to establish that INEC intentionally failed to upload results to the IReV with the aim of manipulating the election outcome in favor of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the February polls.
Justice Tsammani added that the petitioners did not demonstrate how they were adversely affected by INEC’s failure to electronically transmit the results.
“The petitioners have failed to prove substantial non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act,” he said.
The LP and its candidate had approached the tribunal to challenge Tinubu’s victory, citing the delay in the electronic transmission of results by INEC, among other concerns.
KanyiDaily recalls that the Tribunal also declined to accept a copy of the report on the 2023 presidential election submitted by the European Union (EU) Election Observers Mission, which was presented by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP).
