What should have passed as progress on electoral reform has instead ignited outrage, suspicion and political backlash across the country after the Senate rejected a proposal to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory.
After a marathon five-hour session, the upper chamber passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026. But attention quickly shifted from the bill’s passage to the Senate’s refusal to adopt an amendment to Clause 60(3) that sought to compel real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
The rejected amendment would have required presiding officers to upload polling unit results electronically after completing and signing Form EC8A alongside party agents.
Instead, the Senate retained the existing wording in the 2022 law, which allows presiding officers to transmit results “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
Critics argue that this phrasing gives INEC broad discretion and does not legally bind the commission to real-time electronic transmission, a demand that gained prominence after controversies that trailed the 2023 general elections.
Sensing public anger, Senate President Godswill Akpabio insisted that lawmakers did not scrap electronic transmission.
“The social media is already awash with reports that the Senate has rejected electronic transmission of results. That is not true,” Akpabio said shortly after the bill was passed. “What we did was to retain the electronic transmission that was in the Act and was used in 2022.”
But opposition leaders and civil society actors say retaining the old provision rather than strengthening it amounts to weakening safeguards ahead of the 2027 polls.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar described the decision as “a calculated blow against transparency” that favours incumbents.
“Real-time electronic transmission of results is not a partisan demand; it is a democratic safeguard,” he said. “To reject it is to signal an unwillingness to submit elections to public scrutiny.”
The Labour Party called the decision “one of the most retrogressive and anti-people actions” since 1999, while the Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) labelled it “shameful and unfortunate.”
Chief Bode George, former PDP Deputy National Chairman, said it was baffling for lawmakers to resist digital reforms in an era driven by technology.
“Are they lawmakers or lawbreakers? The whole world is going digital and we are going back to the Stone Age,” he said.
Chief Chekwas Okorie, founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), urged Nigerians to remain vigilant in defence of their votes in 2027.
Beyond Clause 60, the Senate made other notable adjustments.
Lawmakers rejected a proposed 10-year jail term for buying or selling Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), retaining a two-year sentence but raising the fine from N2 million to N5 million.
The notice period for elections was reduced from 360 days to 180 days, while political parties must now submit candidates’ lists and affidavits 90 days before elections instead of 180 days.
References to smart card readers were replaced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), but lawmakers retained PVCs as the primary voter identification method and rejected electronically generated voter IDs.
The Senate also deleted Clause 142, which would have allowed courts to rely solely on documentary evidence in electoral non-compliance cases without oral testimony.
INEC warns over timing
Meanwhile, INEC has cautioned that delays in finalising amendments to the Electoral Act could disrupt its preparations for 2027.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), said the commission had already drawn up its timetable based on the current law but might need to make adjustments depending on the final amendments.
“We seek your support in urging the National Assembly to expedite action,” he told media executives and civil society groups in Abuja.
He also announced plans for a nationwide voter revalidation exercise to clean up the register, which currently contains over 93 million names.
“Dead men do not vote,” he said, citing issues of duplicate registrations, underage voters and deceased persons still appearing on the roll.
INEC is also preparing for the FCT Area Council elections slated for February 21, 2026, with BVAS devices being configured for accreditation and result uploads to the IReV portal.
Deepening trust gap
Although the Senate insists it did not remove electronic transmission from the law, the refusal to make it mandatory has widened mistrust among opposition parties and civic groups.
For many Nigerians, the issue is no longer about legislative wording but about confidence in whether the electoral framework for 2027 will eliminate the loopholes that have historically enabled manipulation of results between polling units and collation centres.
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