Server Controversy:  How we transmitted result through e-collation option to central server – Kwara INEC adhoc staff, others

Several officials who claimed they were deployed as electoral officers
by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019
presidential election said they transmitted results electronically to
a ‘central server’ through smart card readers.
This they said was done in compliance with the directive given by the
commission during a three-day training before the polls.
The 20 officials deployed to various states, who mostly worked as
presiding officers, said they were told that there was a “central
server in Abuja” where results are collated electronically.
It is not immediately clear on which “central Server” the officials
admitted to transmitting results but this has added a new twist to the
ongoing confusion trailing INEC’s consistent denial that it used no
server for the election.
A manual issued to the electoral officials by INEC for the 2019
election revealed that the “Communicate” icon on the Smart Card Reader
should be used to transmit the accreditation data to the central
server.
Another handbook for election officials in 2018 was however more
précise on how presiding officers should use the card readers for
electronic collation and transmission of results.
It said it became necessary to apply technology to transmit data and
results from the polling units due to irregularities that take place
after the voting process.
“After successfully filling the EC8A result sheet and announcing the
result, the presiding officer shall tap the e-collation application on
the home screen”, a part of the book read.
Determining whether the commission operated a central computer
database that received election results has become central to the
dispute after the Peoples Democratic Presidential candidate (PDP) in
the 2019 general elections, Atiku Abubakar said results obtained from
the server proved he won the election with 1.6 million votes to defeat
the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
But INEC has strongly denied the claim, saying it neither transmitted
results electronically nor saved them on any server. It said such
activities were not permitted by the electoral law yet. The commission
also accused Mr Abubakar of circulating fake results.
It was gathered that saw details of INEC’s budget for the 2019
elections, and the spending plan shows the electoral body collected
N1.47 billion from the federal government for servers.
But a spokesperson for the commission, Festus Okoye, stated that the
budget for servers was made in anticipation that President Buhari
would sign the amended Electoral Act to allow electronic transfer of
voting results.