Documents Emerge On INEC’s Use Of Central Server In 2019 Polls

Indications on how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) allegedly transmitted voter information from smart card readers to a central server in the 2019 presidential elections have emerged.

An internal circular by INEC’s National Secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, on how the electoral body recorded some challenges in transmitting voter information in some polling units to a supposed server, has surfaced on social media.

The documents, which were posted on Twitter by an agent of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Reno Omokri, indicate that 4,786 smart card readers (SCRS) used during the presidential election did not have data on accredited voters.

PROOF of INEC SERVER:

This is a circular from INEC to its 36 Resident Electoral Commissioners, threatening sanctions on RECs who fail to send data to INEC HQ through their server. INCONTROVERTIBLE evidence @INECNigeria has and had a server.#IncontrovertibleProofOfINECServer pic.twitter.com/pcCjcgKS3O

— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) July 10, 2019

“The commissioner has observed, with deep concerns, the number of smart card readers (SCRs) that do not have data of accredited voters in the just concluded presidential/NASS elections nationwide,” Ms Oriaran-Anthony said in the March 25 letter to all resident electoral commissioners (RECs) across the country.

“Attached is the chart, showing the PUs (polling units) not uploaded to the SCR accreditation backend, for each of the states,” Ms Oriaran-Anthony added in the memo.

INEC is yet acknowledge the leaked documents or disprove them.

The electoral body had previously denied transmitting results electronically to a central server in the presidential election.

INEC had denied the existence of any server used during the 2019 polls.

Opposition PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who claimed to have obtained original results of the election from INEC’s server, also claimed to have defeated Presidential Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23 presidential election.

In his petition before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, Atiku claimed to have scored 1.6 million more votes than Buhari.

This contradicts INEC’s declaration that President Buhari won the election with 15,191,847 total votes against the PDP candidate’s 11,262,978 votes.

THE WHISTLER had earlier reported that a registration technician and staff of the electoral body, Peter Uzioma Obi, had testified on Monday before the tribunal that INEC trained him and others to transmit election results directly to a central server using a given code.

Obi’s claim is yet to be proven or invalidated in the ongoing trial at the tribunal.