Electoral Act: We Stand on Electronic Transmission of Results – Senators …say provision will be monitored up to transmission for Presidential assent

Worried by the backlash that followed reports that the Senate rejected electronic transmission of election results in real time by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as contained in Section 60(3) of the 2026 Electoral Bill, Senators on Thursday declared that they stand firmly by the provision.

The provision states: “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, 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 available at the polling unit.”
During clause-by-clause consideration of the bill on Wednesday, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced that Clause 60 was adopted as amended and not as recommended, a development that led to widespread media reports that the provision on electronic transmission had been rejected.
However, 24 hours later, thirteen serving senators across party lines, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), briefed journalists covering the Senate to clarify the matter.
Speaking at the briefing, Senator Abaribe said the senators came out to correct the wrong impression created by media reports on the position of the Senate regarding electronic transmission of results as contained in Section 60(3) of the 2026 Electoral Bill.
He stated categorically that the Senate did not reject electronic transmission of results, adding that the thirteen senators, alongside many others across political divides, would monitor the provision to the point of transmission to the President for assent.
“To put the record straight, yesterday (Wednesday), the Senate did not, I repeat, did not pass transfer of results which was in the 2022 Act,” he said.
“What we passed, and which the Senate President himself clarified while sitting on his chair, is electronic transmission of results.”
Abaribe added that the briefing was organised to set the record straight and to assure Nigerians that the provision would be closely monitored up to transmission for presidential assent.
“I can assure you on my own, and on behalf of all of us standing here, that both the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters and the Ad Hoc Committee of the Senate, as well as the Executive Session, all agreed on Section 60(3), which is electronic transmission of votes or electronic transmission of results,” he stressed.
Also speaking, Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) described reports that the Senate rejected electronic transmission of results as very painful.
“Our coming here today is to assure Nigerians that the Senate, at no time since September last year when the process for a new Electoral Act for the 2027 general election started, jettisoned the need for a legal provision for electronic transmission of election results by INEC,” he said.
“This negative trajectory against the Senate and, by extension, the National Assembly, should stop. We shall ensure that Section 60(3) of the 2026 Electoral Bill is exactly what will be transmitted to the President for assent.”
Other senators present at the briefing included Austin Akobundu (PDP – Abia Central), Peter Jiya (PDP – Niger South), Ireti Kingibe (ADC – FCT), Victor Umeh (LP – Anambra Central), Binos Yaroe (PDP – Adamawa South), Kabeeb Mustapha (PDP – Jigawa South West), Khalid Mustapha (PDP – Kaduna North), Mohammed Ogoshi Onawo (APC – Nasarawa South), Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (PDP – Sokoto South), Tony Nwoye (LP – Anambra North), and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP – Kogi Central).