BOOT PARTY REJECTS MANDATORY REAL-TIME RESULT UPLOAD, WARNS OF THREATS TO ELECTORAL CREDIBILITY
Updated on : Saturday, 07 February, 2026
Released on: Thursday, 05 February, 2026
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The BOOT Party has reaffirmed its firm opposition to the proposed amendment of the Electoral Act 2022 mandating the real-time electronic upload of polling unit election results, warning that such a provision poses grave risks to Nigeria's electoral credibility, democratic stability, and national sovereignty.
In its official White Paper commissioned in October 2025 and formally submitted in December 2025 to the Presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the party cautioned against legislating technology beyond Nigeria's existing infrastructure, institutional readiness, and professional capacity. The White Paper—Why Rushing a November Election—is publicly available at:
https://BOOT.org.ng/ReBoot/WHITE_PAPER_Why_Rushing_A_November_Election
The BOOT Party emphasized that INEC does not own or control the critical infrastructure required to guarantee seamless, nationwide real-time electronic transmission, including internet connectivity, electricity supply, and telecommunications networks. Mandating real-time uploads in law under these conditions would expose elections to systemic failures entirely outside the Commission's control.
Notably, INEC already introduced the electronic upload of polling unit results to its IReV portal during the 2023 General Elections through administrative guidelines aimed at improving transparency. The BOOT Party therefore questions the necessity and wisdom of elevating this administrative process into a rigid legal requirement. The party warns that doing so would destabilise Nigeria's democracy by inadvertently transferring decisive influence over election outcomes to largely foreign-owned internet and telecommunications operators.
Even more troubling, mandatory real-time electronic transmission would make Nigeria's elections an attractive target for cybercriminals and hostile state actors, exposing the electoral system to hacking, data manipulation, and ransom attacks potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of US dollars.
The party further warned that unreliable connectivity, power outages, adverse weather conditions, and system disruptions—particularly in rural, riverine, and flood-prone areas—could lead to widespread technical failures, voter disenfranchisement, and disputed election outcomes. Embedding such a fragile requirement into law risks transforming routine technical glitches into constitutional, legal, and political crises.
BOOT also cautioned against elevating electronic transmission above physical result sheets, stressing that paper-based results signed at polling units remain the most verifiable, auditable, and legally defensible foundation of Nigeria's electoral process—especially given that voting itself remains paper-based. Where technology fails, elections must not be allowed to fail with it.
The White Paper further raised concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities, the absence of clearly defined legal responsibility when electronic transmission fails, and the dangers of rushing untested systems into binding legislation without comprehensive nationwide pilots, rigorous stress testing, and independent audits.
The issue was never opposition to transparency, the party stated. It was opposition to recklessness—legislating enthusiasm instead of democratic integrity. Democracy must not be placed at the mercy of unstable networks and unproven systems.
The BOOT Party reaffirmed its support for the gradual, carefully tested integration of technology into Nigeria's electoral process—anchored on resilient infrastructure, clear accountability frameworks, and the continued primacy of polling-unit-based verification.
BOOT Party Proposals
As a practical and secure alternative, the BOOT Party proposes the following safeguards:
1. Capturing a digital image of the official polling unit result using BVAS or a similar INEC-approved device.
2. Embedding immutable metadata—including GPS coordinates, date and time stamps, and device identifiers—directly into the image at the point of capture.
3. Prohibiting any form of editing, alteration, or post-capture manipulation of the image.
4. Ensuring compliance with ISO 23081 standards for metadata management in electronic records and transactions.
About the BOOT Party
The BOOT Party is committed to building a credible, inclusive, and sustainable democratic system in Nigeria through evidence-based policy, institutional reform, and responsible innovation.
Yours sincerely,
Sonny Adenuga
National Chairman
Because Of Our Tomorrow (BOOT) Party
@SonnyAdenuga
The BOOT Party is a cooperative-like political leadership system.
@TheBOOTParty
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Because Of Our Tomorrow
The BOOT Party is a cooperative-like political leadership system.
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