The vexed debate over the National Assembly’s refusal to guarantee “mandatory” and “real-time” electronic transmission of results in the electoral law ignores two fundamental problems. The first is Nigeria’s utterly weak state capacity; the second is the total lack of institutional independence. Even if the electoral act provides for mandatory and real-time transmission of results, in reality, “mandatory” won’t be mandatory and “real-time” won’t be real-time: something always goes wrong! Furthermore, INEC and the courts can’t be trusted to be a
The vexed debate over the National Assembly’s refusal to guarantee “mandatory” and “real-time” electronic transmission of results in the electoral law ignores two fundamental problems. The first is Nigeria’s utterly weak state capacity; the second is the total lack of institutional independence. Even if the electoral act provides for mandatory and real-time transmission of results, in reality, “mandatory” won’t be mandatory and “real-time” won’t be real-time: something always goes wrong! Furthermore, INEC and the courts can’t be trusted to be a
