The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has blamed the slowness and unsteadiness of the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) on technical issues.

In a statement released on Sunday by Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, INEC acknowledged that the IReV had certain issues that rendered it “slow” and “unsteady”.

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“The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, state elections to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations,” Okoye said.

Assuring Nigerians that their votes have not been tampered with, the commission said the challenges affecting the IReV are not the result of sabotage, as its team was working to resolve the issue.

READ ALSO: INEC Suspiciously Prevents Lagos Voters From Voting Or Hearing Results After Waiting for 7 Hours

“The Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems and that the IReV remains well-secured,” the statement contained.

“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.

“We also wish to assure Nigerians that the results from the polling units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portals. These results cannot be tampered with, and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.”

Meanwhile, since the electorate cast their votes, people have complained severely about the slow response rate of the result viewing portal.

FULL TEXT

INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION

PRESS RELEASE

CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED WITH THE INEC RESULTS VIEWING PORTAL (IReV)

The Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady. The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.

The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.

Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.

Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.

We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal. These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.

While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.

We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate.

Festus Okoye Esq

National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee

Sunday 26th February 2023