Lawmakers at the Senate
Nigerian Senate has rejected proposed amendments that would have made the electronic transmission of election results compulsory, choosing instead to retain key provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The decision was taken during plenary on Wednesday as lawmakers debated the Bill seeking to repeal the Electoral Act No. 13 of 2022 and enact the Electoral Act, 2025. A major amendment, introduced as Clause 60(5), proposed that presiding officers should electronically transmit polling unit results in real time to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after completing Form EC8A. The clause, however, failed to secure Senate approval.
By rejecting the amendment, the Senate upheld the existing framework under the 2022 law, which requires election results to be manually completed, signed, stamped, and distributed to party agents and security officials.
Under the retained provision, results must be announced at polling units and transmitted “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission,” without making electronic transmission mandatory.
Lawmakers also turned down Clause 47 of the proposed bill, which sought to introduce electronically generated voter identification, including downloadable voter cards with QR codes, for voter accreditation. The Senate maintained the requirement for voters to present a physical Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to participate in elections.
However, the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), or any other device prescribed by INEC for voter verification, was upheld, reinforcing the commission’s role in determining the technology used for accreditation while retaining the PVC as the primary identification document.
