The Nigerian Senate has passed the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal & Enactment) Bill, 2026, while rejecting a proposed amendment to make electronic transmission of election results compulsory.

The electoral bill was passed after consideration and approval of the 155 clauses with amendments made to many of the clauses. 

During plenary session on Wednesday, senators considered the Bill for an Act to Repeal the Electoral Act No. 13, 2022, and Enact the Electoral Act, 2025. 

A key proposed clause (new Clause 60(5)) that would have required presiding officers to electronically transmit polling unit results in real time to INEC’s IReV portal after completing Form EC8A was rejected.

The Senate, instead, retained the 2022 framework, which mandates manual completion, signing, stamping, and distribution of results to party agents and security personnel, with results announced at polling units and transferred in a manner as prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), without mandating electronic transmission.

Senators also rejected Clause 47, which sought to allow electronically-generated voter identification (such as downloadable voter cards with QR codes) for accreditation. 

The requirement to present a physical Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) remains in place, while the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) or other INEC-prescribed devices for verification was upheld.

Meanwhile, there was an amendment reducing the 360 days timeline for INEC to publish the notice of election to 180 days.

It followed the adoption of a motion by Senator Tahir Monguno who moved that the 360 days currently required for INEC to publish the notice of election be reduced to 180 days.

Mr Monguno argued that the reduction in the days was necessary to enable INEC meet up with the requirements on publication of notice, saying that it was already late if the 360 days was taken into consideration regarding the next general election.