The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday bowed to intense public pressure and amended the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2026 to mandate the real-time electronic transmission of election results. The move comes just days after a controversial vote to keep the process discretionary sparked nationwide protests and threats of industrial action.
The upper chamber, which had earlier adjourned until late February, was forced into an emergency plenary session by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. The session was specifically convened to address the fallout from the February 4 decision where lawmakers rejected Clause 60(3), a provision that would have made uploading results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal a legal requirement.
"The President of the Senate has directed the reconvening of plenary for an emergency sitting," stated Emmanuel Odo, Clerk of the Senate, in a notice released Sunday.
The initial rejection of mandatory electronic transmission had united a broad coalition of critics. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) warned of a potential nationwide strike, while the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cautioned that leaving transmission to the "discretion" of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) created dangerous "room for disputes".
The outcry reached a fever pitch on Monday when hundreds of protesters, led by 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, converged on the National Assembly. Obi, addressing the crowd, characterised the technological requirement as a basic standard for transparency. "Simple transmission, it's not a difficult thing," Obi told supporters. "Allow the elections to go through the normal process; whoever wins, we will accept."
During today's deliberations, the Senate shifted its stance, seeking to harmonise its version of the bill with that of the House of Representatives, which had already approved mandatory electronic transmission. Some senators had previously expressed reservations, citing poor internet infrastructure in rural areas as a "condition" that might lead to the disenfranchisement of voters or legal chaos if technology failed.
However, civil society groups like the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room dismissed these concerns as "retrogressive." They argued that the previous "discretionary" model had already been blamed by INEC for systemic glitches during the 2023 polls—glitches that the Supreme Court later ruled were not illegal because the law did not strictly mandate real-time uploads.
The 2026 amendment seeks to close this legal loophole. Beyond transmission, the updated Bill officially replaces the "Smart Card Reader" with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as the sole legal path for accreditation. It also significantly compresses the election calendar, reducing the notice of election from 360 days to 180 days before the vote.
The revised Bill must now undergo a final harmonisation process between both chambers of the National Assembly before it is transmitted to President Bola Tinubu for his signature.