It’s the day after the 2023 presidential elections, and Nigerians are holding their breaths. While most are done voting, some are still voting.
Everyone is waiting to see who will be the next tenant at Aso Rock — and we are getting pretty anxious while doing so.
But we at Citizen are here to tell you today to calm down.
Here’s why:
Election results are not released immediately
Examples are the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections.
In 2015, the elections were held on 28 and 29 March, but the results were released on the 31. In 2019, the elections were held on February 23, and results were released three days after on the 26th. This is because the ballots take time to count and assess (usually between two to three days), and INEC tries to be as accurate as possible.
Results take time to collate
Nigeria has 176,846 polling units across 36 states and the FCT. As you have counted results in your PU, they will count in all PUs across the country. The results will move from individual PUs to local governments before they are transmitted to the states, from where they move to the national collation centre in Abuja, where they are all counted and the INEC chairman will declare the final votes.
Why can’t everyone just send their results to Abuja via email?
Voting ongoing
While voting might be over in your PU, there are several PUs across the country where polls are still open. This is due to factors like the late arrival of electoral officers, not enough electoral officers, and lack of voting infrastructure. While many ballots are on their way to central collation centres, some people are still voting.
BVAS/iREV wahala
Nigeria introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine to make the voting process easier, tackle over-voting, and make result collation faster. Unfortunately, the BVAS
Because BVAS was supposed to make it easier to transmit results, Nigerians have been counting on INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) where results are to be uploaded live. Unfortunately, both BVAS and iREV are facing serious challenges and are currently unreliable.
While one cannot say that this is a deliberate ploy by INEC to rig the election, it calls into question their efficiency and transparency, if results are being uploaded and people can’t see them clearly.
Once INEC rectifies their iREV problems from the backend, or start announcing officially, you will find all the results here on Citizen.
There have never been elections without court cases
Is it a Nigerian election if the losers don’t defend their stance in a court of law? Surely not.
In 2019, results were released in February. However, INEC still had to withdraw 64 certificates of return and give them to the winners of court cases in May.
There could be the possibility of a runoff election
Let’s not forget that we have three main contenders for Nigeria’s iron throne instead of the usual two political parties.
If any of the candidates do not get a simple majority of votes and 25% of votes in 24 states, we, as citizens, may need to come out to vote again in a runoff election.
So, for now, drink water, sleep well and take it easy. Also, follow Citizen’s 2023 election tracker for updates on the results. We got you!
In the meantime, let’s try our best not to distribute fake election results. If in doubt, send a message to the Citizen Situation Room on Whatsapp and we will fact-check for you.
