The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, during plenary consideration of the Bill for an Act to Repeal the Electoral Act No. 13, 2022 and Enact the Electoral Act, 2025, rejected a proposed amendment that sought to make the electronic transmission of election results from polling units to the IREV portal compulsory.
The rejected proposal was contained in the new Clause 60(5) of the draft bill, which aimed to mandate Presiding Officers to electronically transmit polling unit results in real time after completing and signing Form EC8A.
The clause was designed to strengthen transparency and reduce electoral malpractice through technology-driven result management.
However, the Senate voted against the amendment and approved the retention of the existing 2022 Electoral Act provisions on vote counting and result documentation.
The motion to reject the electronic transmission clause was swiftly seconded by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin.
Under the rejected proposal, Presiding Officers would have been required to transmit results electronically to the IREV portal immediately after signing and stamping the prescribed result form at the polling unit, alongside physically announcing the results.
Instead, the Senate resolved to retain the 2022 provision which mandates Presiding Officers to manually complete result forms, sign and stamp them, distribute copies to polling agents and security personnel where available, announce results at the polling unit, and transfer results “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission” without expressly mandating electronic transmission.
In a related development, the Senate also rejected a proposed amendment under Clause 47 that would have allowed voters to present electronically generated voter identification, including a downloadable voter card with a unique QR code, as a valid means of accreditation.
Lawmakers voted to retain the existing 2022 provisions requiring voters to present their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) for accreditation at polling units.
The Senate further upheld the provision mandating the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) or any other technological device prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for voter verification and authentication, rather than allowing alternative digital identification methods as proposed in the new bill.
With these decisions, the Senate reaffirmed the use of PVC and BVAS-based accreditation while rejecting efforts to expand digital voter identification and make electronic transmission of results compulsory.
Plenary was still ongoing at the time of filing this report.
Daily Sun