President Bola Tinubu
The National Assembly had on Tuesday harmonised the bill before sending it to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his signature.
The lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives approved electronic transmission of election results, with manual collation retained as a back up.
President signed the new amendment to the electoral act at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas were at the Vila as the President signed it.
This follows the passage of the bill by the National Assembly on Tuesday after months of deliberations.
The bill has generated heated debates in the last one week, with lawmakers and prominent Nigerians disagreeing over the method for the transmission of results, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
For the House of Representatives, opposition staged a walkout and was shouting “APC ole, APC ole!!! as they showed their grievances over the passage which they protested that the ‘nays’ were more than the ‘ayes’.
When the House of Representatives passed the Electoral Act in December 2025, it adopted the compulsory real-time transmission of election results to IReV.
The Senate had on Tuesday passed the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill 2026 but not without a rowdy session as the upper chamber resumed proceedings with a demand for division over Clause 60 raised by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (ADC/Abia South).
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had stated that he believed the demand had previously been withdrawn, but several opposition senators immediately objected to that claim.
Citing Order 52(6), the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, argued that it would be out of order to revisit any provision on which the Senate President had already ruled.
Akpabio further suggested that the call for division was merely an attempt by Senator Abaribe to publicly demonstrate his stance to Nigerians.
The senate president sustained the point of order, after which Abaribe rose in protest and was urged to formally move his motion.
Rising under Order 72(1), Abaribe called for a division on Clause 60(3), specifically concerning the provision that if electronic transmission of results fails, Form EC8A should not serve as the sole basis, calling for the removal of the proviso that allows for manual transmission of results in the event of network failure.
During the division, Akpabio directed senators who supported the caveat to stand.
He then asked those opposed to the caveat to rise.
However, when the votes were counted, the Senate President announced that 15 senators were not in support of the proviso, while 55 senators voted in support of it.
Earlier, proceedings in the Senate were momentarily stalled as lawmakers began clause-by-clause consideration of the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill 2026, following a motion to rescind the earlier amendment.
The motion to rescind the bill was formally seconded on Tuesday, paving the way for the upper chamber to dissolve into the committee of the whole for detailed reconsideration and reenactment of the proposed legislation.
Comment here