INEC Attributes Alleged 1,219 Votes in Kwali to Clerical Mistake, Confirms 121 Votes After Recount in FCT Council Election
The (INEC) has clarified the controversy surrounding the alleged allocation of 1,219 votes to a political party in Kwali during the recent Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections, describing the claim as a clerical misunderstanding rather than electoral fraud.
In a statement addressing viral reports from the Kuroko Health Centre polling unit in Yangoji Ward of , INEC explained that the figure 1,219 was incorrectly interpreted from a corrected result sheet entry.
According to the commission, the presiding officer initially recorded 122 votes for the All Progressives Congress (APC) but, after a routine recount conducted openly at the polling unit, discovered that the accurate figure was 121 votes. While effecting the correction on the result sheet, the final digit “2” was cancelled and replaced with “1”. However, the alteration was later misread by some observers as “1219,” leading to allegations of vote inflation.
INEC firmly denied any manipulation of results, emphasizing that the total number of accredited voters at the polling unit was far below the alleged 1,219 votes. The commission also reassured the public that its technological safeguards — including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) — prevent the upload of figures exceeding accredited voter numbers.
The electoral body further stated that the corrected figure of 121 votes was the one officially uploaded to the IReV portal and used during collation.
The clarification comes amid heightened scrutiny following the FCT council polls, with stakeholders calling for transparency and accountability in the electoral process. INEC maintained that the situation in Kwali was a simple human error promptly identified and corrected in line with electoral guidelines.
Observers say the incident highlights the need for careful documentation at polling units to avoid misinterpretations that can undermine public trust in elections.
