FCT Election: INEC Debunks Alleged Vote Inflation in Kwali Polling Unit

FCT Election: INEC Debunks Alleged Vote Inflation in Kwali Polling Unit

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission has dismissed claims circulating on social media that results were manipulated at Kuroko Health Centre Polling Unit in Yangoji Ward, Kwali Area Council, during Saturday’s FCT Area Council election.

The allegation claimed that a political party scored 1,219 votes at the polling unit despite having only 345 registered voters and 213 accredited voters.

In a statement signed on Tuesday by the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the FCT, Aminu Idris, the Commission stated that “the claim of manipulation or falsification is untrue and misleading.”

It explained that the discrepancy arose from an error by the Presiding Officer while entering the party’s score.

Providing details of the investigation, the Commission quoted the officer who interrogated the Presiding Officer as saying: “She said after sorting and counting the ballots, she recorded 122 for APC. On tallying everything, she noticed that there was an overshoot by one (1). So they had to recount the ballots in the open, that was when she realised that APC should be 121 not 122.”

INEC clarified that the official result uploaded from the polling unit showed 121 votes for the party, not 1,219 as alleged on social media. It stressed that the figure was corrected on the result sheet, signed by party agents present, and subsequently entered into Form EC8B during ward collation.

The Commission further noted that the result management system makes the alleged manipulation technically impossible, stating that “the BVAS-driven validation process prevents over-voting and numerical manipulation at source.”

It added that the BVAS device automatically rejects entries where total votes exceed the number of accredited voters.

In the Kuroko polling unit, INEC said the number of accredited voters was 213, while the score entered for the party concerned was 121, which was consistent with accreditation figures and used at both ward and Area Council collation levels.

The Commission reaffirmed that the FCT Area Council election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines.

It urged members of the public and media commentators to verify information with official records before drawing conclusions capable of eroding confidence in the electoral process.

INEC reiterated its commitment to transparency and accountability, assuring that while genuine errors are investigated and corrected, the present allegation stemmed from a clerical mistake that was promptly addressed and did not affect the official result.