How politicians still threaten credible polls — INEC source

*IREV, RATECHs will check rigging

*Immediate access to uploaded Polling Units results by voters is key; what voters must know and do to navigate IREV sphere 

*Patriotic INEC staff averted rigging plot in Anambra governorship poll

COMPLEMENTING the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in its drive to hand to Nigerians free, fair and credible elections in 2023, Vanguard can authoritatively provide Nigerians a step-by-step process of how to assist the commission and, indeed, the nation, to deliver elections worthy of their calling.

Last week, the National Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, re-committed the commission to its avowed determination to deliver on the promise of free, fair and credible elections.

He insisted that the Bimodal Verification Voting System, BVAS, and the uploading of results real time had come to stay. 

The nagging question is whether Nigerians will have access to view polling units results as they are uploaded on the INEC Server and its result-viewing portal, INEC Election Result Viewing, IREV, portal simultaneously.The National Chairman, Professor Yakubu and Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, avoided making a commitment to Nigerians that as polling units results are being uploaded to the INEC server, the same results would be uploaded simultaneously to INEC Election Result Viewing, IREV, portal for the viewing confirmation of Nigerians.

Vanguard was authoritatively informed by INEC sources at its headquarters in Abuja that there is a difference between real time upload of results to the INEC Server and real time upload of results to the IREV portal.

Whereas the INEC Server used for the election is the warehouse for documentation and storage of election results, which only a specific and designated number of senior staff of the commission have access, the IREV Portal is the window opened to members of the public to access results of elections.

Vanguard learned that there is a difference between realtime upload of polling units results to the INEC Server and real time release of results on the IREV portal.

The INEC source disclosed that the intendment of the commission at the time of piloting the system “is to first upload the polling units results to the INEC Server, clean up whatever errors that may have occurred using its Registration Area Technicians, RATECHs, who also have access to the Server, before uploading the same polling units results onto the IREV portal where Nigerians can then have access.”