Senate Passes Electoral Act Amendment Bill, Blocks Electronic Transmission of Results

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Senate on Wednesday passed the bill to amend the Electoral Act of 2022 after delays, which almost pitched the institution against several Nigerians.

Last week, the upper chamber of the National Assembly headed by the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, set up a panel to look into the matter, with the directive to submit its report yesterday, Tuesday, February 3, 2026.

However, after the report was submitted yesterday, the red chamber of the parliament said it was going to take an action on it on Wednesday.

At the midweek plenary, the Senate eventually passed the Bill for an Act to Repeal the Electoral Act No. 13, 2022 and Enact the Electoral Act, 2025.

However, some critical clauses were rejected, including the proposed amendment to make is mandatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmission election results electronically from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

The clause was to strengthen transparency and reduce electoral malpractice through technology-driven result management.

It also rejected a proposed amendment under Clause 47 that would have allowed voters to present electronically-generated voter identification, including a downloadable voter card with a unique QR code, as a valid means of accreditation.

The Senate voted to retain the existing 2022 provisions requiring voters to present their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) for accreditation at polling units, and upheld the provision mandating the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) or any other technological device prescribed by the electoral umpire for voter verification and authentication, rather than allowing alternative digital identification methods as proposed in the new bill.

The Senate also reduced the notice of election from 360 days to 180 days, with the timeline for publishing list of candidates by INEC dropped from 150 days to 60 days.