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The Senate has dismissed reports claiming that it rejected the electronic transmission of election results during consideration of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
The clarification came from Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, shortly after the upper chamber passed the bill following a marathon session that lasted about four and a half hours.
Consideration of the contentious amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the bill began at about 2pm and stretched until 6.26pm, fuelling speculation online that lawmakers had voted against mandatory electronic transmission of results.
However, news made the rounds that the Senate shot down a proposal that would have compelled presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission to transmit results electronically from each polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real time, after signing and stamping the prescribed result forms.
According to the reports, the Senate was said to have instead retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
However, Akpabio insisted that the interpretation was misleading, stressing that the Senate did not remove electronic transmission from the law.
He said, “Distinguished colleagues, the social media is already awash with reports that the Senate has literally rejected electronic transmission of results. That is not true. What we did was to retain the electronic transmission which has been in the act and was used in 2022.
“So please, do not allow people to confuse you. If you are in doubt, we will make our final votes and proceedings available to you if you apply.
“This Senate under my watch has not rejected the electronic transmission of results. It is in my interest as a participant in the next election for such to be done. So please don’t go with the crowd.
“We have retained what was in the previous provision by way of amendment. That was all we did. The previous previous has made allowance for electronic transmission. So it is still there as part of our law. We cannot afford to be going backwards.”
The issue of electronic transmission of results has remained a sensitive and highly debated aspect of Nigeria’s electoral reforms since the 2023 general elections, with civil society groups and opposition parties consistently pushing for clearer and more explicit legal backing to strengthen transparency and public confidence in the electoral process.
Akpabio’s intervention was aimed at calming public concerns and correcting what he described as deliberate or careless misrepresentation of the Senate’s action on the bill, as the National Assembly continues work on economic.
Punch
