Analysts have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure its Results Viewing portal known as IReV does not swing up technical failure as vote sorting and counting begin in various parts of the state for the governorship and state house of Assembly elections, which held today across the country.

The electoral umpire had received backlashes following the failure of the IReV portal after the February 25 presidential election in allowing results to be uploaded real-time as the results were being announced in polling units.

INEC had blamed the failure on “technical” glitches its officials encountered in using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to upload results to the portal from polling units.

Analysts who spoke on Channels Television thus afternoon, monitored by The ICIR via Channels’ Facebook live stream, made the call on the electoral umpire.

“Your IReV must not fail, and if you [INEC] have any problem with it, please communicate. INEC should be up and doing,” the executive secretary of HEDA Resource Centre, Sulaimon Arigbabu, said.

Also, the executive director, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, Tobi Oluwatola, recalled that “three weeks ago during the presidential election the biggest failure INEC recorded was in proving the credibility of its IReV portal.

Oluwatola said, “A lot of people felt like anything could have happened between polling units and when election results were announced.”

According to him, a few civil societies led by Enough is Enough had put together a platform (ootcresult.com) where citizens can upload results from their polling units and also compare with what comes out of the IReV.

“So go there, upload your results and compare what IReV comes out with and let’s work together to make our elections accountable,” he added.

The distrust INEC created by the failure of the IReV has not only drawn the concern of political parties which lost out in the presidential election, but also civil societies, and international observers who monitored the election.

In fact, weeks after the presidential election, INEC has yet to upload the complete results from all polling units onto its IReV.

The electoral umpire is already being dragged into legal battles as a result of the failure of the IReV in the presidential election.