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The Senate’s partial reversal on electronic transmission of election results is a hard won victory for Nigerian citizens and civil society advocacy. However, despite this shift, the Senate has again failed to fulfil its promise, explicitly set out in its own legislative agenda, to amend the Electoral Act (2022) comprehensively to fix the glaring gaps identified during the 2023 elections. By retaining a dangerous manual fallback caveat in cases of communication failure, the Senate continues to ignore the technical weaknesses that undermined the last general election.
Following days of coordinated digital action, public engagement, and physical protest, the Senate has now approved a revised provision requiring Presiding Officers to electronically transmit polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after votes are counted and Form EC8A is signed and stamped. This shift is not incidental; it is the result of Nigerians insisting that the failures of 2023 must not be repeated. While we welcome this reversal as an important step, we are clear that this victory is incomplete because the Senate version remains fundamentally flawed.
The Senate’s revised clause still retains a dangerous escape route by allowing physical result forms to become the primary basis for collation whenever electronic transmission fails due to so called communication failure. Without strict safeguards, this provision risks recreating the same discretionary loophole that undermined public trust in 2023. The responsibility to fix these systemic weaknesses now rests with the Conference Committee of the National Assembly, led by Senator Simon Lalong for the Senate and Hon. Adebayo Balogun for the House of Representatives.
We call on the Conference Committee to do the needful by adopting the House of Representatives version of the amendment, which is more robust, reform-oriented, and technically sound. Specifically, the Committee must take the notice of election day to 360 days rather than 180 days to allow for better logistics and significantly increase penalties for vote buying to curb voter inducement. By essentially accepting the House version, which correctly addresses these gaps, the Committee can eliminate the ambiguity that allows administrative discretion to override transparency.
This harmonisation process is the final opportunity to deliver an Electoral Act that truly protects the vote and restores confidence in Nigeria’s democracy ahead of the 2027 general elections. Let it be stated clearly: Citizens have done their part. They spoke, they organized, and the Senate responded. Now, the Lalong and Balogun led committee must finish the job and deliver on the promised legislative agenda. Nigeria does not need half reforms or fallback clauses that weaken accountability. We need a law that works for the people and leaves no room for manipulation.