The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has debunked claims of result manipulation at the Kuroko Health Centre polling unit in Yangoji Ward, Kwali Area Council, following the Saturday Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory.
In a statement on Tuesday signed by INEC FCT Office Resident Electoral Commissioner, Aminu K. Idris, the commission said the viral figure of 1,219 votes for a political party was incorrect and misleading.
“The official result recorded and uploaded from the said polling unit shows that the political party in question scored 121 votes, not 1,219 as alleged on social media,” the statement read.
The clarification followed reports suggesting that the polling unit, which has 345 registered voters and 213 accredited voters, produced a mathematically impossible figure.
According to the statement, the discrepancy arose from a simple human error by the presiding officer.
The officer recounted the ballots and initially entered “122” for the party, later correcting it to 121 after a recount in the open.
“She cancelled the ‘2’ at the end and slotted in a ‘1’ in front of the cancelled ‘2’ to make it 121. She also corrected the figures in words,” the INEC statement said.
The commission stressed that technological safeguards within its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal make such manipulation impossible.
“The number of accredited voters was 213. The score entered into the BVAS for the party concerned was 121. The total votes recorded were consistent with accreditation figures,” the statement added.
It also noted that any attempt to enter a figure like 1,219 would have been automatically flagged and rejected by the system.
INEC further assured the public that all results used for collation at the ward and area council levels were consistent with the BVAS data and that the FCT elections were conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines.
“The Commission urges members of the public and media commentators to verify information with official records before drawing conclusions capable of eroding public confidence in the electoral process,” the statement said.
The electoral body reaffirmed its commitment to transparency and accountability, stating that genuine errors are investigated and corrected immediately.
“However, the present allegations are based on genuine errors which were immediately corrected; the misinterpretation of figures does not reflect the official record used in collating and declaring the results,” the statement concluded.
