The Senate has approved the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Reenactment) Amendment Bill 2026 after its third reading.
However, lawmakers did not pass the proposed change to Clause 60, Subsection 3, which sought to make electronic transmission of election results compulsory.
The rejected clause would have required presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to send results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, once the prescribed Form EC&A was signed, stamped, and countersigned by candidates.
Instead, the Senate kept the existing Electoral Act provision, 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.”
Senate President Godswill Akpabio clarified in his closing remarks that the decision did not block electronic transmission of results.
He said, “electronic transmission has always been in our act,” adding, “What we did was retain the existing provision, which already makes provision for electronic transmission.”
He emphasized that there was no intention to delay or hinder the passage of the Electoral Act.
Earlier, the Senate rejected a proposed 10-year jail term for buyers and sellers of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) under Clause 22, choosing instead to maintain a two-year imprisonment term while raising the fine from ₦2 million to ₦5 million. This decision was made during the consideration of Clause 22 on Wednesday.
Lawmakers also modified Clause 28 on the notice of election, cutting the timeline from 360 days to 180 days. Previously, the commission was required to publish a notice in each state and the Federal Capital Territory at least 360 days before the election.
In Clause 29, the Senate reduced the period for political parties to submit lists of candidates and their affidavits from 180 days to 90 days. The revised clause now reads: “every political party shall, not later than 90 days before the date appointed for a general election under this Act, submit to the Commission, in the prescribed forms, the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor at the elections, who shall have emerged from valid primaries conducted by the political party.”
The Senate retained Clause 44 regarding ballot paper formats. INEC must, at least 20 days before an election, invite political parties to inspect samples of electoral materials, with parties given two days to approve or disapprove how their identity appears on the materials.
Under Clause 47, the Senate replaced smart card readers with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation and voting. However, after debate, lawmakers rejected electronically generated voter identification, keeping the Permanent Voter Card as the official mode of identification at polling units.
The Senate also removed Clause 142, which dealt with non-compliance and allowed parties to rely on original or certified documents in court without calling oral evidence. The clause was struck out after arguments that it could waste court time.
