INEC admits IReV portal experienced challenges during 2023 presidential election

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has acknowledged that a glitch affected the seamless operation of the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV, during the 2023 presidential election.

INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakub stated in the foreword of the report: “This report documents the major activities the Commission carried out in the preparation and conduct of the General Election, beginning from mid-2019.

“This early preparation was in keeping with what has become the Commission’s practice of long-range systematic planning and execution of the country’s elections since 2010.”

The electoral body primarily attributed the glitch to the intricate, sensitive, and critical nature of the systems, coupled with the genuine threat of malicious cyberattacks.

The IReV portal is one of the most significant innovations introduced by the commission before the 2023 general elections to promote the integrity and transparency of the electoral process.

As a public-facing website, the IReV portal shows images of the original polling unit result sheets as recorded in Form EC8A.

The 526-page report was published by the commission on its website.

The report partly reads: “The challenge of uploading the PU presidential election results on the IReV after the presidential and NASS elections on 25th February 2023, was unique.

“As voting ended across the country and POs began the process of uploading the images of the PU result sheets of the elections for the various constituencies around 4:00 pm, the commission began to receive reports that attempts to upload presidential election result sheets were failing.

“Following these reports, the commission immediately engaged with its field officials for details in order to understand and trace the origin, source, scale, and magnitude of the problem across the result management ecosystem to devise appropriate solutions.”