I suppose the position INEC should maintain at the moment is that the law did not permit electronic voting in its entirety during the last election...

But if it is about transmitting election results to the server at the just concluded elections, INEC has no position therein.

I worked with INEC during the 2019 elections as a Registration Area Technical Support Officer ie RATECH.

We had a three day training centering on the use of smart card readers for voting and E-collation of results from the poling units and wards.
Our job included fixing card reader issues and helping the Presiding officers in our wards to transmit election results to the server. In fact, I gave a refresher training to all the POs and APOs in my ward on this.

We were assessed after the training both by physical interview and online assessment test.

On election day, INEC assigned the card readers of the poling units in our wards to us, gave password for each poling unit with which the POs will transmit the results to the server, right from the poling units.

INEC also gave us tablets with separate passcodes, and mandated us to collect copies of all election results from the EC8As and transmit them to the server.
In fact, my boss then was threatening that we won't be paid until all the results from the poling units in our wards are uploaded and transmitted to the server...
The essence of transmitting the results right from the poling units was to ensure that the results are secured even if the card reader is snatched/destroyed/stolen and to prevent other forms of Electoral malpractice... like changing the results in transit from the poling units to Collation center.



However, I can still remember that one of our tutors during the training said that INEC is only piloting the E-Voting project i.e the E-collation is only a way of testing the possibility of conducting electronic voting in subsequent elections in the country.


My take: is there a server? I don't know.
Were results transmitted to the server during the elections? Yes.
I transmitted results to the server, this may be against the electoral law though, but I only did what INEC trained us to do...

Well, that is not completely true.
The Smart Card Readers(SCR) aside data accreditation were equally used for collection of results from the poling units during the 2019 elections.
The Presiding Officer for each poling unit for the election was given a password that enables him or her to enter the result of the voting for each election right from the poling units. These results are entered on the SCRs and sent to INEC server.

The aim is to curtail the discrepancy and irregularities that may occur between
results announced at the poling units and the ones that are finally brought at the Collation center. This equally safeguards the results in a situation where the SCRs are snatched by thugs and/or damaged.