After pressure from the media and other stakeholders, the Senate, yesterday, passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill but rejected electronic transmission of results, an item that some stakeholders consider critical for free and fair elections in 2027.
The Senate passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026 after the third reading. It rejected a proposed amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the bill, which sought to make the electronic transmission of election results mandatory.
But Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, said in a swift reaction that the Senate retained transmission of results as provided in the 2022 Act.
The rejected provision would have required presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to electronically transmit results from each polling unit to the IReV portal in real time, after the prescribed Form EC8A had been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and counter-signed by candidates’ agents.
Instead, the Senate adopted the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
