Osun 2026: Is IReV Taking Back Its Role in Nigeria’s Elections?

Electronic voting, IReV

…the Osun experience has shown how important electronic transmission and public access to polling unit results are in preventing manipulation and increasing transparency, accountability and citizen oversight. After the trust crisis following the 2023 general election, IReV seems to be regaining its status as an important player in Nigeria’s election system.

In Nigeria, the toughest part of an election often starts after a voter submits their ballot. Votes can be counted and result sheets signed openly at polling units with voters and party agents watching. But the movement of results through wards, local governments and state collation centers has always been risky. This process opens the door to changes, fakes, and even total forgery of results. Judicial records and various electoral reform efforts, like the Babalakin Commission of Inquiry from 1986, the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee in 2008, and the Nnamani Committee on Constitution and Electoral Reform in 2017, all point to one conclusion: election results manipulation has been a deep-rooted issue in Nigeria’s electoral politics. The pressing challenge has been protecting the integrity of polling unit results until they are finally declared.

The INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) was created to tackle the long-standing issue of election results manipulation. The goal of this new technology was clear and powerful: make polling unit results public to stop manipulation, replacement, and the creation of fake results during the collation process at ward, local government, and state levels. Polling officials use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to take pictures of the completed result sheets and send them to IReV. This creates a public record that can be checked against any future changes.

From 2022 to the 2023 general election, IReV built a name for itself as an election changer. It not only made polling unit results public but also added a layer of transparency and accountability to the results management process. This made it harder for compromised election officials to change results during collation. IReV also helped INEC resist political pressure aimed at altering or hiding results. However, the 2023 general election marked a big setback. The inability to upload presidential polling results as planned became a major issue, harming public trust in a system that was supposed to represent transparency and integrity in managing results.

The 2026 Osun governorship election tells a different story. IReV had its challenges, and there are still questions about how results are sent, how the BVAS operates, and how data is synced. Still, the Osun experience highlighted the importance of electronic transmission and real-time public access to results as ways to prevent manipulation and enhance transparency, accountability and citizen oversight. After the trust issues from the 2023 general election, IReV seems to be taking back its place as an important factor in Nigeria’s election system.

Since 2023, there has been a slow legal and operational reform. The biggest change is the amendment to Section 60(3) of the Electoral Act 2026, which gives legal backing to IReV and makes electronic transmission of results mandatory. INEC also introduced the electronic EC8A (e-EC8A) on the BVAS through its Regulations and Guidelines. Polling officials first take a picture of the physical Form EC8A using the BVAS before entering the results into the electronic version.

IReV: From Experiment to Election Integrity System

IReV did not just appear out of nowhere. It was a move by INEC to use technology to reduce human error in managing results. After the 2011 general election, INEC attempted to send results via SMS but had to drop it due to the high error rate and the number of political parties. They also tried e-Track, using scanners to convert polling unit results into PDFs, but many results were never scanned or were unreadable. What worked was a simpler idea: send state-level presidential results to Abuja through a secure channel before the physical forms were sent so the numbers could be checked publicly. This method, started in 2011, became the Collation Support and Result Verification System (CSRVS) and eventually IReV.

The IReV portal was officially launched during the Nasarawa Central State Constituency by-election on 8 August 2020, alongside the use of Z-Pad tablets. Although the Z-Pad was later dropped due to technical issues, this election marked a key point: it was the first time citizens could access polling unit results online. INEC says uploaded result sheets are time-stamped and tamper-proof, creating a digital trail accessible to political parties, observers, journalists and citizens.

The Nasarawa trial also showed the need for a more advanced device that could support both voter accreditation and electronic results management. This led to the creation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), combining fingerprint and facial recognition with the ability to capture and transmit polling unit results to IReV. So, IReV’s development was gradual: from an experimental tool for transparency to a key part of Nigeria’s election integrity system.

The innovation quickly expanded. By 2021, INEC reported that images of polling unit results had been sent in elections across 20 states and the FCT, covering 83 local government areas, 920 wards and 14,212 polling units. IReV soon became a core part of INEC’s results management structure. INEC understood the importance of this. Their 2021 document on electronic transmission pointed out the risk in the results management process: a mainly manual system where officials filled out result sheets and physically moved them through different levels of collation, allowing opportunities for results to be changed, stolen, damaged or destroyed. The Commission described one example of this risk as “result jacking.” IReV was thus not just a tech upgrade; it was made to act as a safeguard against a long-standing weakness in Nigeria’s results management process.

IReV regained its status as a game changer in Osun because the law, technology and public oversight came together: the Electoral Act 2026 strengthened its legal base, citizens used it to check results, and independent verification boosted its credibility. If any of these parts are missing, IReV could become just a website. In 2027, it must show that the game has really changed.

The Long Rebuild

Since 2023, there has been a gradual legal and operational transformation. The most important change is the amendment to Section 60(3) of the Electoral Act 2026, which gives legal backing to IReV and makes electronic results transmission mandatory. The operational reform included INEC’s introduction of the electronic EC8A (e-EC8A) on the BVAS through its Regulations and Guidelines. Under this, polling officials must first use the BVAS to take a picture of the physical Form EC8A before entering the results into the electronic version. They must also confirm that the numbers entered match the figures on the physical result sheet. If the numbers do not match, the BVAS will not allow the entry and will block transmission. According to INEC, this validation is meant to stop the transmission of result sheets with errors or discrepancies.

Independent Verification Boosted the Credibility of the Election Results

The Osun election showed how valuable it is to combine electronic transmission with independent verification. Citizens and many monitoring groups could follow, gather and analyze polling unit results almost in real time. Yiaga Africa’s Election Results Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) 2.0, developed with Channels Television and supported by the European Union, provided detailed checks on results published on IReV, enhancing the transparency and accountability of the results management process. ERAD 2.0 found that while IReV remained open, there were delays in publishing results. The first 41 results showed up around 3:40 p.m., 3:48 p.m., nearly 1 hour 40 minutes after voting ended. ERAD also reported that some upload attempts failed because the electronic EC8A validation mechanism found discrepancies.

A long pause later happened when uploads stayed at 3,292 results between 8:48 p.m. and 11:50 p.m., with 471 still pending, before transmission started again around 11:50 p.m. By 8:36 a.m. the next day, 3,701 results had been published, accounting for 98.35 percent completion. This experience highlighted both the importance of independent verification and the need for better resilience, speed and transparency in IReV’s operations. Yet, the silence during the critical phase of results management could lead to the same trust issues seen in the 2023 general election. That uploads eventually resumed without signs of major changes does not make the silence okay. If IReV wants to be seen as a trustworthy system, any delays or problems must be accompanied by quick public updates.

The Bigger Lesson: Transparency Changes Behavior

IReV’s most important impact may be on behavior, not just technology: transparency changes motivations. When election officials know that polling unit results will be made public, the cost of altering them rises; when political actors realize that independent verification platforms like ERAD 2.0, backed by real-time televised analysis, can independently check and scrutinize results, the chances for pressure and manipulation decrease; and when citizens can follow their votes from polling units to collation, results management becomes less open to tampering. The real test will come in 2027 when IReV must work nationwide under much higher political, technological and operational stress. Clearly, IReV regained its status as a game changer in Osun because the law, technology and public oversight came together: the Electoral Act 2026 strengthened its legal base, citizens used it to check results, and independent verification boosted its credibility. If any of these parts are missing, IReV could become just a website. In 2027, it must show that the game has really changed.