Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) currently lacks the capacity to conduct electronic voting, the Senate of Nigeria has said.

The upper chamber also clarified that the electronic transmission of election results in real time should not be misconstrued as electronic voting, contrary to claims circulating in some quarters.

Chairman of the Senate Ad Hoc Panel to Review the 2026 Electoral Bill, Sen. Adeniyi Adegbonmire, made the clarification on Thursday during a programme in Abuja.

He stressed that INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is not an e-voting platform.

“It is a platform where results that have been manually counted and declared at polling units are uploaded and publicised,” he explained.

The senator distinguished between real-time electronic transmission of results and a full e-voting system.

The Senate constituted the ad hoc committee to review the report of its Committee on Electoral Matters, harmonise divergent views, and address grey areas identified during deliberations.

Adegbonmire said Nigeria had not transitioned to e-voting, despite suggestions to the contrary.

“People need to understand what real time means. Real-time transmission can only happen if INEC adopts an e-voting system.

“For now, INEC does not have the capability for e-voting. Maybe in two or three years we can adopt it. But as of today, INEC has not put an e-voting system in place.

“This misconception has been fuelled by sections of the media. The provision being emphasised clearly states that the presiding officer will first fill the result manually in Form EC8A.

“It is that manually completed Form EC8A that will then be transmitted to IReV. Even if we replace ‘transmit’ with ‘upload’ in the Electoral Bill 2026, nothing changes.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters, he urged that misconceptions surrounding IReV be corrected in the interest of national stability.

“IReV is not a voting platform. It merely publicises results already declared by presiding officers at polling units across the federation.

“There is either misunderstanding or deliberate misrepresentation of what it stands for.

“The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections. It is simply software developed by INEC to publish results.

“People say they want to see their vote. That is not what IReV is for. It only displays declared results.

“This is not emotional. The House version also only requires that the presiding officer electronically transmit results after Form EC8A has been signed and countersigned at the polling unit.”