The National Assembly on Tuesday approved the electronic transmission of election results but retained manual collation as a backup, triggering protests, a walkout by opposition lawmakers and heated debates in both chambers ahead of the 2027 general elections.
What should have been a routine legislative correction to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill instead degenerated into one of the most dramatic sittings of the 10th Assembly, exposing deep partisan fault lines ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In the Senate, 15 lawmakers, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (ADC, Abia South), stood defiantly against a controversial proviso in Clause 60(3) that recognises the manually completed Form EC8A as the primary source of collation where electronic transmission fails.
In the House of Representatives, the minority caucus staged a walkout, accusing the Speaker Tajudeen Abbas leadership of railroading amendments and frustrating attempts to insist on mandatory real-time electronic transmission without
Outside the complex, protesters — joined by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili — accused lawmakers of attempting to dilute electoral safeguards.
By sunset, both chambers had passed versions of the bill that preserve electronic upload of polling unit results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal, while stopping short of making real-time transmission mandatory without exception.
At the heart of the storm lies a familiar Nigerian dilemma – whether technology alone can be trusted to safeguard democracy.
