Senate Rejects Mandatory Electronic Transmission of Election Results

The Nigerian Senate has rejected proposals seeking to make the electronic transmission of election results compulsory, opting instead to retain the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The decision was taken 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. A major point of contention was a proposed amendment under a new Clause 60(5), which sought to mandate presiding officers to 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 Senate, however, voted to reject the clause, thereby maintaining the existing framework under the 2022 Act.

The retained provisions require presiding officers to manually complete, sign, and stamp result forms, distribute copies to party agents and security personnel, and announce results at the polling units. The law further provides that results be transmitted to INEC “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission,” without explicitly mandating electronic transmission.

In a related development, lawmakers also rejected Clause 47 of the proposed bill, which would have permitted the use of electronically generated voter identification, including downloadable voter cards with QR codes, for accreditation.

By the Senate’s decision, the requirement for voters to present a physical Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) for accreditation remains unchanged. The use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) or other devices as may be prescribed by INEC for voter verification was, however, upheld.

The Senate’s resolutions mean that key aspects of the electoral process, including result transmission and voter accreditation, will continue to be governed by the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, unless altered by future legislative action.