The weight of the decision on the country’s electoral process and future was laid on the nation’s telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Friday as the House of Representatives invited it to the Public Hearing over Electronic Transmission of Election Results in the country.
The Commission had observed that more needs to be done to prepare the country for a very reliable eTransmission of results during elections.
This was the view of the NCC team that addressed the House of Representatives on the suitability of the use of electronic devices for the transmission of election results in the country as part of discussions on the provisions of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The NCC was summoned and questioned by the House of Representative to ascertain if it will be possible to conduct a credible election using technology to transmit results real-time.
According to the Commission, survey revealed that polling unit areas were covered mostly by the 3G and 2G networks, which represents about 50.3% of the entire country.
It also revealed that 49.7% of the national spread did not have Internet coverage, which will be required for real-time electronic transmission of electoral results.
The invitation extended to the NCC to brief the House on the nation’s network coverage to determine the slant of the debate on the contentious provision of electronic transmission of results during elections was necessary to curb incidences of ballot snatching and falsification of election results.
The Commission which was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Engr. Ubale Maska and the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Mr. Adeleke Adewolu, told members that less than 50% of the country enjoys 3G Internet coverage for which electronic transmission of results could rely on.
