The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially dismissed social media reports alleging result falsification at a polling unit in the Kwali Area Council. The Commission clarified that the controversy stemmed from a clerical correction by a Presiding Officer, rather than any systemic fraud.
Clerical Error, Not Manipulation
The Commission addressed a viral claim that the Kuroko Health Centre polling unit in Yangoji Ward recorded 1,219 votes for a single party, despite having only 213 accredited voters.
According to an official investigation, the discrepancy was a result of a physical correction on the result sheet. The Presiding Officer originally recorded 122 votes for the APC, but upon a public recount, realized the actual figure was 121.
“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 official result recorded and uploaded shows the party scored 121 votes, not 1,219 as alleged,” the Commission stated.
Technological Safeguards Prevent Over-voting
INEC emphasized that the current Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) make the alleged manipulation “technically impossible.”
The Commission explained that the BVAS device is programmed with internal validation checks that automatically flag and block any entry where the total votes exceed the number of accredited voters. In this instance, because there were only 213 accredited voters, a figure of 1,219 would have been instantly rejected by the system.
Verification and Collation Consistency
The electoral body confirmed that the correct figure of 121 was the one used during the Ward and Area Council collation stages. This figure was verified and signed off by party agents who were present at the polling unit during the count.
INEC maintains that the clearer version of the result is available on the IReV portal for public scrutiny, proving that the figures used for the final tally were mathematically consistent with the number of accredited voters.
Commitment to Transparency
Reiterating its commitment to electoral integrity, INEC noted that the IReV portal serves as a transparency tool designed to mirror the actual results from the field. The Commission urged the public to rely on official data rather than unverified social media reports that misinterpret physical corrections on result sheets.
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