INEC Assures Nigerians 2023 Election Results Remain Safe Despite Expired Domain

The Independent National Electoral Commission has assured Nigerians that the results of the 2023 general elections remain safe and intact, despite concerns over the expiration and subsequent change of ownership of a domain previously associated with the commission’s electronic results platform.

INEC said the affected domain, inecelectionresults.net, did not contain the commission’s election database. According to the commission, the actual election results are securely stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and are not hosted directly on any domain name.

The clarification followed concerns raised by MundX Analytics, a Nigerian elections data and analytics company, which alleged that INEC had allowed the domain used to deliver links to some 2023 polling-unit result sheets through the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to expire.

MundX claimed that the domain was subsequently registered by another party and now redirects visitors to an advertising or commercial domain-parking platform.

However, INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, dismissed suggestions that the commission’s election data had been lost or acquired by another organisation.

Bayode explained that INEC had stopped using the .net domain after migrating to its current .ng platform, adding that the commission does not store election results directly on its domains.

He said the expiration of the old domain did not affect the underlying election data because the results are stored separately on Amazon Web Services.

According to him, the problem arose because some older links to result sheets were still pointing to the discontinued .net domain.

Bayode said, “Our data is not on that domain. Our data is on AWS. The only thing is that when you go to that domain, some of the results at that time are pointing to that domain.”

He explained that INEC did not renew the domain because it was no longer being used after the commission migrated to the .ng platform.

The ICT director said the commission became aware of the issue while preparing its electronic platform for the Osun State governorship election.

He said INEC subsequently instructed its technical team to identify old links connected to the discontinued domain and redirect them to the commission’s current .ng platform.

Bayode stressed, however, that even the current .ng domain should not be confused with the actual storage location of the election results.

He said the results are stored in an S3 bucket on Amazon Web Services, a cloud storage system used by the commission since it began deploying the IReV platform.

INEC therefore maintains that the expiration of the old domain did not result in the loss, alteration or transfer of its election results.

MundX Raises Concerns Over Accessibility

While INEC maintains that the underlying election data is secure, MundX Analytics focused on a different aspect of the issue — the accessibility of polling-unit result sheets through old IReV links.

The company alleged that the domain inecelectionresults.net expired on April 25, 2025, after which it was registered through a commercial domain service.

MundX said its audit identified 470,619 result records that pointed directly to the affected domain.

The company argued that this meant that hundreds of thousands of result sheets could no longer be accessed through their original IReV links and that users following some of those links could instead be redirected to advertising websites.

MundX said it had previously contacted INEC about the issue and called on the commission to restore the affected result sheets, repair the links and strengthen the security of its election-results infrastructure.

However, the founder of MundX, Martin Uwakwe, later clarified that the company’s investigation did not uncover any evidence that voters’ personal information, biometric data, Permanent Voter Cards or the voter register had been exposed through the affected domain.

He said the records involved were primarily images or PDF copies of polling-unit result sheets that had previously been made available to the public through IReV.

Uwakwe also clarified that MundX could not establish that INEC had deliberately “sold” the domain or that NameBright had directly purchased it.

According to him, the domain appeared on a domain-drop list on April 25, 2025, and was registered later that day through TurnCommerce Inc., trading as NameBright.com.

He said the identity of the registrant was protected by a privacy service, while the domain’s nameservers were operated by AboveDomains, a commercial domain-parking provider.

MundX said its audit directly confirmed the 470,619 affected result records, but found no evidence of a mass leak of voters’ personal information or a compromise of INEC’s BVAS or core election databases.

Possible Risks Highlighted

Despite the absence of evidence of a compromise of INEC’s main election databases, Uwakwe warned that the continued control of the old domain by a third party could create other risks.

He said people who follow old IReV links could potentially expose information such as their IP addresses, timestamps, browser details and the particular polling-unit result they were attempting to access.

He identified other potential risks as loss of access to public election evidence, phishing, tracking, deceptive advertising, malicious redirects and the possibility of false documents being presented through a domain previously associated with INEC.

He also warned that the situation could affect public confidence in the IReV system ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Uwakwe noted that the domain was reportedly registered until April 25, 2027, meaning that the issue could continue into the next election cycle.

He stressed that the incident did not establish that any election result had been altered, but said it created a potential channel for disinformation and impersonation.

MundX therefore urged INEC to remove or replace every IReV link still pointing to the old domain and restore the affected result sheets on infrastructure controlled by the commission.

The company also recommended that INEC explore the possibility of recovering or acquiring the domain from its current registrant and investigate the circumstances surrounding its expiration, renewal and management.

Uwakwe said such an investigation should include a review of relevant DNS, registrar, hosting and access logs.

He explained that a domain name functions only as an internet address and is not the same thing as the underlying data storage.

According to him, simply re-registering the domain would not automatically give INEC access to files stored or controlled by another party.

CACOL Seeks Stronger Safeguards

The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) also expressed concern over the possible implications of inaccessible polling-unit result sheets, particularly in relation to ongoing legal cases arising from the 2023 elections.

CACOL Chairman Debo Adeniran said the availability of polling-unit result sheets could become important where such documents are required as evidence in election-related litigation.

He noted that if a particular result sheet is required in court but cannot be accessed, it could create difficulties in the judicial process.

Adeniran also called on INEC to strengthen its cybersecurity and monitoring systems, arguing that the commission should be able to quickly identify and respond to suspicious activity involving its websites, portals and related infrastructure.

He said the commission should not only assure Nigerians that its election data is safe but should also demonstrate that its migration from the old domain was properly executed.

According to him, Nigerians should be able to independently access election results from affected polling units, particularly because such accessibility contributes to confidence in the electoral process.

Adeniran maintained that the reliability of election technology should be demonstrated rather than simply asserted.

INEC Platform Remains Accessible

INEC’s current IReV platform remains accessible and provides election-result information from recent and previous elections, including the 2023 general elections and the 2026 off-cycle elections.

The commission has continued to maintain that the expiration of the old .net domain did not compromise its underlying election database.

Meanwhile, Osa Director, National Publicity Secretary of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, raised broader concerns about the 2027 general elections, particularly in relation to INEC’s management of electoral technology and its proposed use of artificial intelligence.

Director called for increased scrutiny of the electoral process and urged stakeholders, including the international community, to encourage INEC to ensure that future elections are conducted transparently.

His comments came amid the wider debate over the accessibility of some 2023 election records and the commission’s preparations for the 2027 elections.

The controversy has therefore highlighted an important distinction between the security of INEC’s underlying election database and the continued accessibility of publicly available result sheets through legacy internet links.

While INEC insists that the actual election results remain securely stored on AWS, MundX and other stakeholders are calling for the affected links to be restored and for stronger safeguards to ensure that publicly accessible electoral records remain available and protected.

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