The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday amended the Electoral Act, altering Section 60 to mandate electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IREV), while simultaneously creating a major loophole that allows manual result sheets to prevail where electronic transmission fails.
The amendment was adopted during plenary proceedings monitored by SaharaReporters, with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, presiding.
Under the revised provision, presiding officers at polling units are required to electronically transmit results to the IREV portal after the completion of voting.
However, the amendment provides that where electronic transmission is unsuccessful due to communication or network failure, the manual result sheet — Form EC8A — shall become the primary basis for collation and declaration of results.
While putting the motion to a vote, Akpabio insisted that lawmakers who opposed the amendment should formally move a counter motion.
“It’s very simple. If you disagree with him, move your counter motion. So, if you agree with him, you agree with me when I put the votes,” Akpabio said.
He explained that the motion sought to rescind an earlier decision of the Senate concerning Section 60, Subsection 3 of the Electoral Act.
“When I ask for the votes, when I ask for your consent, let me read the motion. His earlier motion, which passed in our last sitting, he has sought to rescind that. That is in respect of Section 60, Subsection 3. And this is what he said,” Akpabio stated.
Reading the amended clause, the Senate President said: “That the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal. And such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units, because sometimes you don’t see any polling agent.”
He added that the law now makes provision for situations where electronic transmission is not possible.
“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the results fails as a result of communication failure — in other words, maybe network or otherwise — and it becomes impossible to transmit the results electronically in Form EC8A signed and stamped by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units, the Form EC8A shall in such a case be the primary source of collation and declaration of results,” Akpabio said.
The amendment has intensified concerns among civil society groups and opposition figures, who argue that allowing manual results to supersede electronically transmitted results undermines electoral transparency and opens the process to manipulation, particularly in areas with poor network coverage.
Akpabio disclosed this during a plenary session of the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, monitored by SaharaReporters, while announcing the constitution of a 12-member Senate delegation to harmonise differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives on the electoral amendment bills.
The Senate has also increased the size of its conference committee from nine to 12 members to match the number from the House of Representatives, with the aim of concluding the process quickly and transmitting the final version of the bill to the President.
“We have raised our numbers from nine to twelve to match the figures from our colleagues in the House of Reps. We expect everything to be done in the next few days or in a week. The President is expected to sign this into law in February,” Akpabio said.
The Senate President’s comments come amid growing controversy, public backlash and street protests by Nigerians who accuse the National Assembly of deliberately weakening the Electoral Act to undermine credible elections.
and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, on Monday joined protesters under the banner of #OccupyNASS, organised by the National Opposition Movement (NOM), at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
Sowore warned security operatives against any attempt to assault peaceful demonstrators and accused the political elite of engineering electoral laws that favour manipulation.
“This is an exposition that already existed. It is not new. That is why it is a surprise to everyone that this provision was yanked away from the Electoral Act that Akpabio and his friends are trying to put in place,” Sowore said.
He argued that the ruling political class is afraid of transparent elections because it would expose their inability to win genuinely.
“We know why they are doing it. These people cannot win in free and fair elections. But the people have a duty to demand processes that guarantee free, legal and transparent elections,” he stated.
CREDIT: SAHARA REPORTERS
