Senate Rejects Mandatory Electronic Transmission of Election Results

The Senate has turned down a proposed change to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the Electoral Amendment Bill that aimed to compel the electronic transmission of election results.

Under the rejected amendment, presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have been mandated to upload polling unit results electronically to the IREV portal in real time, once Form EC&A had been duly signed and stamped by the presiding officer and countersigned by party agents.

Rather than adopt the proposal, the Senate opted to retain the current provision in the Electoral Act, which provides that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”