Telcos say Nationwide e-transmission of 2023 election results is possible

Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has assured Nigerians that the telecoms architecture in the country has the capacity to make electronic transmission of the election results possible.

Members of the association MTN, Airtel, 9Mobile, Glo, and other operators believe that the telecommunication infrastructure in Nigeria has matured to the level it could transmit election results in 2023, The Punch reports.

In an interview with the newspaper, the Chief Operating Officer of the association, Ajibola Olude, dispelled the scepticism of the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership on the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and e-transmission of results.

On the transmission of election results in rural areas, Olude maintained that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has started working on rural telephony.

He added that areas that do not have the Internet can use SMS technology to send results in real-time.

Olude said “We are ready for electronic transmission of results. Our network has matured to the level that it can be used for result transmission. As regards the access gap, you can see that the NCC has been pursuing rural telephony vigorously.

“We have the technology, and our network is mature enough to be used for poll results transmission. Areas that do not have the Internet can use SMS technology to send results in real-time to probably the capital of the state to update the result. I don’t think there will be a problem using a telecommunication network to transmit election results.”

Recall that the National Chairman of the ruling APC, Abdullahi Adamu had expressed doubt over INEC’s capacity to deliver credible elections using BVAS and the Results Viewing Portal.

The party’s National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu corroborated Adamu’s sentiment when he identified stable power supply as one of the challenges that could affect the application of technological innovations to the 2023 elections.

Adamu and Argungu’s submissions sparked controversy as other political parties including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) accused the APC chieftains of plotting to rig the forthcoming election.

The APC chieftains have, however, clarified their position saying they were not opposed to the deployment of the innovation during next year’s polls but merely tasked the INEC on its readiness to deploy the technology.