Senate Approves Electronic and Manual Transmission of Election Results in Landmark Electoral Act Amendment

The Nigerian Senate has approved a major amendment to the Electoral Act, allowing presiding officers to transmit polling unit results electronically to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Results Viewing Portal (IREV) while retaining manual procedures as a backup.

The decision, taken during an emergency plenary session on Tuesday, modifies Section 60 of the Electoral Act following a motion by Senate Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno, who sought to reverse the Senate’s earlier rejection of real-time electronic result transmission.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio outlined the procedure, stating:

“The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available.”

He also clarified a fallback mechanism to address network or technical failures:

“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the results fails as a result of communication failure, the manually signed and stamped Form EC8A shall be the primary source of collation and declaration of results.”

The amendment, codified as Clause 60(3), ensures that election results can be sent electronically where technology permits, but in the event of system failure, the signed Form EC8A remains the authoritative document for collation and announcement.

The decision sparked debate on the Senate floor, with Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe initially calling for a division on the matter before withdrawing the request.

The amendment addresses long-standing concerns about transparency and credibility in Nigeria’s electoral system, providing a hybrid model that combines modern technology with established manual safeguards.