A legal practitioner, Maxwell Opara, has said the passage of the electronic transmission of election results with manual collation retained as a backup, is a technical way to institutionalise electoral fraud.
Opara made this statement on Wednesday while fielding questions in an interview on Arise Television.
He was reacting to the passage of the much debated Electoral Amendment Act by both chambers of the National Assembly, which approved electronic transmission of election results, with manual collation retained as a backup.
Lending his own opinion, the legal practitioner said, “This is a technical way of institutionalising electoral fraud.
“It hands enormous discretion to the presiding officer to determine what constitutes a communication failure and when results are uploaded.
“That opens the door to manipulation between the polling unit and the collation centre, especially when the courts still recognise paperwork as the primary evidence.
“We cannot return to square one. Civil society groups will continue to resist this until it is corrected.”
