Ahead of the 2027 general election, the Senate may take a significant step in strengthening Nigeria’s electoral system, with significant changes to the Electoral Act centered on real-time electronic results transmission.
When the Senate considers the report of its Committee on Electoral Matters today, the proposed provision—which requires the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results from polling places directly to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) immediately following vote counting—will be discussed clause by clause.
In response to a resolution made by Senate Leader Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central), who encouraged his colleagues to review the report prior to discussions on what he termed as a highly sensitive piece of legislation, the report was presented to senators yesterday for plenary consideration.
With Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s consent, Bamidele said that a quick private meeting would take place prior to the committee-of-the-whole consideration so that senators could discuss the report before the final discussion.
According to a copy of the committee’s report that was acquired yesterday, the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025 now includes a new subsection (3) that is specifically intended to prevent instances of vote box snatching and result manipulation.
“INEC shall electronically transmit election results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time and such transmission shall be done simultaneously with the physical collation of results,” the new clause makes clear.
The committee also added a new subsection (2) to Section 77, which made it illegal for presiding officers to neglect to sign and stamp ballots and the results they announced at polling places. This was another important improvement.
The “smart card reader” was replaced with the “Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS),” formally acknowledging BVAS as the legally recognized accreditation method, in Sections 47(2) and (3) to bring the law into line with modern election technology.
In order to address claimed abuses during voting by visually impaired and handicapped individuals, the study further modified Section 54(1).
In order to preserve the confidentiality and integrity of these voters’ ballots, the proposed reforms would prohibit political party agents, candidates, or officials from accompanying such voters inside the polling cubicle.
The committee suggested more severe sanctions for the purchase and sale of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in an effort to discourage vote-trading and the illegal handling of voter cards.
The proposal suggested raising the Section 22 fine for offenders from N500,000 to N5 million.
Akpabio urged senators to approach the process with attention and moderation, given the ramifications of the proposed revisions for Nigeria’s democracy.
“Distinguished colleagues, as suggested by the leader, please let us study the report very well ahead of final consideration tomorrow, first at the committee of the whole and then at the closed-door session,” he said.
It is anticipated that today’s discussion would lay the stage for what may be the most significant revision to Nigeria’s election system since electronic accreditation and result viewing were implemented.