The Senate on Wednesday passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Reenactment) Amendment Bill 2026 at its third reading, while rejecting some proposed changes.
A proposed amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, which would have made the electronic transmission of election results mandatory, was rejected. The provision would have required presiding officers to transmit results from each polling unit to the INEC Results Viewing (IREV) portal in real time after signing and stamping Form EC&A, countersigned by candidates.
Instead, the Senate retained the existing law, which requires presiding officers to “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 that electronic transmission remains part of the law, saying, “Electronic transmission has always been in our act. What we did was retain the existing provision.”
The upper chamber also rejected a proposed 10-year jail term for PVC buyers and sellers under Clause 22, keeping a two-year prison term but increasing the fine from ₦2 million to ₦5 million. Several timelines in the bill were shortened. Notice of election under Clause 28 was reduced from 360 days to 180 days, while the submission of candidate lists and affidavits by political parties under Clause 29 was shortened from 180 days to 90 days.
The Senate retained the provisions for ballot paper inspection under Clause 44, requiring INEC to invite political parties to verify samples of electoral materials 20 days before elections, with parties allowed two days to approve or disapprove the materials. Under Clause 47, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) replaces smart card readers for accreditation and voting. However, the Senate rejected electronically generated voter identification, maintaining the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) as the primary identification method at polling units.
Clause 142, which allowed parties alleging non-compliance to submit certified documents instead of calling oral evidence in court, was struck out, with lawmakers citing potential time-wasting in judicial proceedings. Finally, the Senate announced the formation of a conference committee to harmonize differences, to be chaired by Senator Tahir Munguno.
