The National Assembly on Tuesday permitted the digital transmission of election outcomes however retained guide collation as a backup, triggering protests, a walkout by opposition lawmakers and heated debates in each chambers forward of the 2027 normal elections.
What ought to have been a routine legislative correction to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill as an alternative degenerated into some of the dramatic sittings of the tenth Assembly, exposing deep partisan fault strains forward of the 2027 normal elections.
In the Senate, 15 lawmakers, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (ADC, Abia South), stood defiantly towards a controversial proviso in Clause 60(3) that recognises the manually accomplished Form EC8A as the first supply of collation the place digital transmission fails.
In the House of Representatives, the minority caucus staged a walkout, accusing the Speaker Tajudeen Abbas management of railroading amendments and irritating makes an attempt to insist on necessary real-time digital transmission with out caveats.
Outside the complicated, protesters — joined by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili — accused lawmakers of trying to dilute electoral safeguards.
President of the Senate Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Reps Abbas
By sundown, each chambers had handed variations of the invoice that protect digital add of polling unit outcomes to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal, whereas stopping in need of making real-time transmission necessary with out exception.
At the center of the storm lies a well-recognized Nigerian dilemma – whether or not expertise alone may be trusted to safeguard democracy.
Senate torn aside
Tuesday’s Senate plenary was tense from the outset.
The Upper Chamber had earlier handed the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2026, however was compelled to rescind its resolution and recommit it to the Committee of the Whole after discrepancies had been recognized in a number of clauses, together with these affecting timelines for the 2027 elections already introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
But it was Clause 60 — coping with the transmission and collation of election outcomes — that ignited tempers.
The closing reenacted model of the controversial clause, significantly subsection (3), reads: “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available, provided that if electronic transmission fails due to communication failure, Form EC8A shall remain the primary source of collation and declaration of the result.”
Proceedings later resumed with Abaribe demanding a division on the clause, insisting that senators should publicly document their positions.
The Abia South lawmaker had tried the same transfer throughout final week’s emergency plenary however withdrew beneath stress, which sparked criticisms throughout the chamber.
His renewed insistence triggered a rowdy session however Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele intervened, stressing that “whether he has done it or not is now in the past. But it is within his (Abaribe) rights to call for it. Let us allow him.”
But Senate President Godswill Akpabio reminded the chamber of Abaribe’s earlier aborted try.
“People were mocking you on social media,” Akpabio mentioned, noting that the earlier demand had been withdrawn.
Opposition senators protested instantly, arguing that the matter was correctly earlier than the chamber.
Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin cited Order 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders, contending that it will be out of order to revisit provisions already dominated upon by the presiding officer.
That submission sparked uproar.
Senator Sunday Karimi briefly confronted Abaribe throughout the aisle as voices rose.
Bamidele insisted that since he had moved a movement for rescission, earlier choices had been void, and Abaribe’s demand for a division was procedurally sound.
Each time Akpabio referenced Abaribe’s earlier withdrawal in a tone some senators described as mocking, opposition lawmakers shouted him down.
Eventually, the Senate President put the matter to a vote.
Fifty-five senators that reduce throughout the ruling All Progressives Congress and some opposition members — together with Deputy Minority Leader Lere Oyewunmi, Wadada Aliyu (SDP, Nasarawa) and Amos Yohanna (PDP, Adamawa) — stood in help of retaining the guide backup proviso.
When these against it had been requested to rise, solely Abaribe and 14 others stood, a improvement that led to the ‘ayes’ carrying the day.
For the second time in two weeks, the Senate permitted digital transmission with guide collation as a fallback.
Under the amended proviso, the manually accomplished and signed Form EC8A will represent the first foundation for collation and declaration of outcomes the place digital transmission is disrupted by community or communication challenges.
In sensible phrases, outcomes can be uploaded electronically to IReV, however the place expertise fails, the signed paper consequence prevails.
2027 ballot
Before the explosive division, the Senate had reversed its earlier passage of the invoice.
Rising beneath Order 52(6), Bamidele moved that the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2026 be rescinded and recommitted.
He defined that INEC’s announcement fixing the 2027 normal elections for February 2027 had triggered recent considerations.
Stakeholders argued that the proposed date conflicted with Clause 28 of the invoice, which required elections to be scheduled a minimum of 360 days earlier than the expiration of tenure.
There had been additionally considerations that February 2027 would fall inside Ramadan, probably affecting voter turnout and logistics.
Following the controversy, the Senate amended Clause 28, lowering the necessary discover interval from 360 days to 300 days.
The revised clause now requires INEC to publish discover of election not later than 300 days earlier than polling.
The 60-day discount grants INEC flexibility to schedule presidential and National Assembly elections between late December 2026 and January 2027.
Lawmakers mentioned the adjustment was essential to accommodate non secular sensitivities and logistical realities.
The movement additionally corrected discrepancies within the invoice’s Long Title and a number of clauses — together with Clauses 6, 9, 10, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32, 42, 47, 51, 60, 62, 64, 65, 73, 77, 86, 87, 89, 93 and 143.
‘Act of patriotism’
After the division, Akpabio struck a conciliatory tone that noticed him praising each the minority and majority blocs.
According to him, the dissenting lawmakers demonstrated braveness regardless of being outnumbered, proving that democracy was at work.
He mentioned, “Let me thank distinguished senators for his or her act of patriotism and show of democracy, significantly by those that had the braveness even within the face of an amazing majority to face up and to reply your father’s title by exhibiting a lot braveness to vote towards a proviso in 60 (3).
“Your minority standing however, you confirmed overwhelming braveness. You had been in a position to show that democracy works. I additionally need to thank those that voted for the proviso to stay, as you may have saved democracy by ensuring that we don’t go on steady reruns and repeats of elections by making certain that the first mode of election outcomes is the shape EC8A.
“I want to also thank the Senate for introducing electronic transmission of polling unit results through the portal to the IReV, which will now make it possible for election monitors, including foreigners, who monitor our results, who are not able to visit the 176,000 plus polling units in Nigeria, to see the polling unit results dropping into the IReV.”
Akpabio additional described the introduction of digital transmission of polling unit outcomes to the IReV portal as a landmark innovation since 1960, noting that it will enable election observers, together with overseas screens, to trace ends in actual time with out bodily visiting polling items.
The Senate President reiterated that elections are gained and misplaced at polling items, not collation centres, therefore the emphasis on correctly accomplished and signed polling unit outcomes as the muse of the method.
“This is a serious innovation since 1960, which remains to be a stance to be applauded. I additionally need to thanks for noting that elections are executed within the polling items.
“Elections will not be executed on the collation centres. That is why you insisted that the polling unit outcomes crammed by presiding officers and co-signed by the polling clerk in addition to brokers of candidates and political events, the place out there, stay the first mode of collation of all ends in Nigeria.
“I thank you for your innovation that we should undertake in the future, so that there is only direct consensus in our primary system because this will enable all the party people to partake in the choice of their candidates,” he said.
However, Akpabio was silent on whether or not the sooner February 20, 2027 presidential ballot date could be formally shifted.
Reps minority walkout
If the Senate session was explosive, the House sitting was equally dramatic.
The chamber descended into chaos when Francis Waive moved a movement for rescission of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025.
Speaking on the movement, Waive mentioned, “The House is conscious {that a} Technical Committee comprising the management of each chambers, members of the Conference Committee, the Clerks of the Senate and the House of Representatives and authorized drafting consultants from the Directorate of Legal Services of the National Assembly, met to harmonise and tackle the recognized anomalies.
“We recognise the crucial of making certain electoral timelines and statutory provisions, promote most participation, equity, inclusivity, administrative effectivity and public confidence within the electoral system.
“Desirous of correcting the identified inconsistencies and unintended consequences through appropriate legislative action in order to safeguard the integrity of the Electoral framework; the House resolved to rescind the decision on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025, and recommit the same to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.”
When Speaker Abbas referred to as for a voice vote, majority voices shouted “nay.”
But the Speaker dominated in favour of the “ayes,” triggering outrage from opposition lawmakers.
As tempers flared, the House went into govt session.
When plenary resumed, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu tried to proceed clause by clause.
Opposition members rose in protest, shouting “APC-ole,” “clause by clause,” and “the Speaker should take over.”
Moments later, Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda led opposition lawmakers out of the chamber.
Addressing journalists, Chinda mentioned, “As a caucus, we need to clearly register our place and defend it, with specific reference to Section 60 (3), which has to do with digital transmission.
“Our place is that elections shall and must be transmitted electronically. We are towards any clause that can give room for any laws, rigging or leeway for any untoward act.
“We have requested that the clause ought to stay solely for digital transmission with none situation.
“We have also proposed where there is a conflict between the form EC8A, which is capable of being manipulated, and the electronically transmitted result, the electronically transmitted result should prevail.”
He alleged APC lawmakers pissed off the amendments.
“These positions (proposed amendments) were turned down, and we are aware that they were turned down by members of the APC, not on grounds of patriotism, but on grounds of political party affiliation,” he mentioned.
On the walkout, he added, “After the plenary or whatever that happened on the floor, we felt it was better to register our position with Nigeria. We had to leave the plenary to address these issues.”
Indirect primaries row
Another flashpoint was Section 84, an amended model that recognises solely direct primaries and consensus, placing out oblique primaries.
But Chinda objected, saying, “There can also be Section 84, which has to do with major elections. Our place stays that strategies of choice of candidates must be the inner affairs of political events.
“Political celebration must be allowed to find out what methodology they need to undertake on the choice of candidates that can characterize them, to not be cocooned to both direct primaries or no matter.
“We support that parties should be allowed to adopt the method that best serve them whether it is direct, indirect primaries or consensus,” he added.
Ezekwesili joins protesters
Outside the complicated, ex-minister Oby Ezekwesili joined the demonstrators.
“I have been particularly loud in stating that if the Senate gets away with a provision that is ambiguous, that gives power of discretion to determine the ifs and the buts, instead of making the clause mandatory; that every vote must count in this country,” she mentioned.
“The method that our votes will depend is to have this necessary provision that makes it the core precept of our electoral transparency. No longer shall our votes be topic to the sorts of cancellations of outcomes that we noticed in earlier elections.
“The solely cause they don’t need transparency by the necessary provision for there to be instantaneous, real-time, digital transmission of the outcomes is as a result of they need to proceed to seize our democracy.
“The society is labouring under the weight of poor governance that we have seen so far in our democracy. And so we as citizens are saying, stop any coup against this democracy. Stop it.”
Abbas vs lawmakers
Behind the scenes, recent particulars emerged of how Speaker Abbas satisfied reluctant members to contemplate the invoice.
A House member advised The PUNCH that many lawmakers had been indignant over poor funding of capital elements of the 2024 and 2025 budgets.
He mentioned, “The speaker begged relentlessly for members to permit for Electoral Act consideration. Members later agreed with the settlement to close down any subsequent consideration on resumption of plenary on February 24, except the budgets are funded.
“Initially, members didn’t want to consider anything today (Tuesday).”
The compromise averted a boycott — however not the rebel that adopted.
With the convention committee already set as much as reconcile variations between each chambers, the invoice now strikes towards harmonisation earlier than transmission to the President.
Following the outrage that greeted the passage of the invoice by each chambers, the House of Reps spokesman Akin Rotimi defended the method.
He mentioned, “The House management consulted extensively, which fashioned the premise of a whole lot of the provisions that you just noticed earlier in the present day (Tuesday). When you may have a convention committee, it solely considers the provisions in both the Senate or the House.
“INEC acted within the provisions of the extant law. But you need to be able to walk around those provisions to allow for more flexibility for INEC to be able to fix the timetable while keeping with the provisions of the law.”
He added that the rowdy session was democracy in motion and that “the majority carries the day.”
Yet the pictures of senators standing in defiance, opposition lawmakers chanting earlier than strolling out, and protesters massed exterior the gates inform a extra complicated story.
With barely a 12 months earlier than the 2027 normal elections enter full marketing campaign mode, the battle over Clause 60 has change into greater than a technical debate about transmission modes.
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