The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposed amendment seeking to make the electronic transmission of election results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) compulsory.

The decision was taken during plenary consideration of the Bill for an Act to Repeal the Electoral Act No. 13, 2022 and Enact the Electoral Act, 2025.

The rejected proposal was contained in the new Clause 60(5) of the draft bill, which sought to mandate presiding officers to electronically transmit polling unit results in real time after completing and signing Form EC8A. The clause was intended to enhance transparency and curb electoral malpractice through technology-driven result management.

However, the Senate voted against the amendment and approved the retention of the existing provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act on vote counting and result documentation. The motion to reject the electronic transmission clause was seconded by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin. The rejection followed an amendment made by Senator Tahir Monguno (Borno, APC) who proposed that transmission aspect be removed while the original provision be retained.

Under the rejected proposal, presiding officers would have been required to electronically transmit results to the IReV portal immediately after signing and stamping the prescribed result form at the polling unit, in addition to physically announcing the results.

Instead, the Senate resolved to retain the 2022 provision, which requires presiding officers to manually complete result forms, sign and stamp them, distribute copies to polling agents and security personnel where available, announce results at the polling unit, and transfer results “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission,” without expressly mandating electronic transmission.

In a related development, the Senate also rejected a proposed amendment under Clause 47 that would have allowed voters to present electronically generated voter identification, including downloadable voter cards with unique QR codes, as a valid means of accreditation.

Lawmakers voted to retain the existing 2022 provisions requiring voters to present their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) for accreditation at polling units. The Senate further upheld the mandatory use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), or any other technological device prescribed by INEC, for voter verification and authentication, rejecting proposals for alternative digital identification methods.

With these decisions, the Senate reaffirmed the use of PVCs and BVAS-based accreditation while declining efforts to expand digital voter identification and make electronic transmission of results compulsory.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved a separate amendment reducing the period within which INEC must publish a notice of election from 360 days to 180 days before the poll.

The amendment followed a motion moved by Senator Tahir Monguno, who argued that the reduction was necessary to enable INEC to meet statutory requirements ahead of the 2027 general elections.

With the amendment, INEC now has a shorter statutory window for publishing notices of election, while existing procedures on voter accreditation and result transmission remain unchanged.

Plenary was still ongoing at the time of filing this report.

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