The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained that a system error led to delays in uploading the 2023 Presidential election results to its Result Viewing (IREV) platform. On February 25, 2023, result sheets for the presidential election failed to upload, while those for other elections were successfully transmitted.
Technical experts identified the issue as a configuration problem in mapping the nationwide presidential results, which are not tied to any specific state. INEC applied “hotfixes” to address the issue, and the uploads resumed later in the day. However, high traffic from queued results and issues with BVAS devices—either turned off or out of coverage—further delayed the process.
In a detailed report from the Commission’s stakeholder engagements and retreats, INEC emphasized the importance of more targeted testing of election technology. The report also noted that despite the challenges, the use of IReV helped prevent result manipulation by making Polling Unit (PU) results publicly accessible before collation.
The Commission concluded that a key lesson learned is the critical importance of time in the deployment of election technology. Sufficient time for development, testing, integration, and publicizing of the technology is vital to ensure its success.
