Electoral Act: Yiaga Africa, PAACA disagree over Senate’s rejection of e-transmission of results
e-transmission
By Perpetua Onuegbu
Abuja, Feb. 5, 2026 (NAN) A civil society organisation (CSO), Yiaga Africa, has described as unfortunate the Senate’s rejection of e-transmission of elections results, saying it undermines the whole essence of electoral integrity.
The Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, Nigerians have said repeatedly that electronic transmission of results will inspire trust and confidence.
“INEC demanded and advocated for electronic transmission of results because the court said that the electronic collation was not part of our electoral process, and this position taken by the senate is unfortunate.
“It’s really embarrassing and contradicts the position taken by the House of Representatives which voted ‘Yes’ for electronic transmission of results.
“We hope that when they go to the conference committee stage to harmonise their positions, these positions taken by the senate will be rejected because it undermines the whole essence of electoral integrity.
“This is really unfortunate; the senate has betrayed the trust of Nigerians and it’s the greatest disservice that they have done to this beloved country of ours,” he said.
Itodo also commented on the senate’s advocacy to block the download of electronic voter cards from INEC website, reduce notice of election from 360 days to 180 days, cuts down timeline for publishing list of candidates from 150 days to 60 days
All these, he said, would increase the risk of logistics problems during elections.
“What the senate passed is not a reform; it’s a betrayal of public trust and a deliberate attempt to weaken all the guardrails for credible elections,” he said.
However, Ezenwa Nwagwu, the Executive Director, Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), another CSO, countered Itodo.
According to him, the assumption that when results are not electronically transmitted, public trust is lost cannot not be substantiated.
“Another spurious assumption is that there’s an atmosphere of distrust among the masses. This cannot be substantiated by any verifiable data or statistics.
“The masses are not a politically-homogeneous category. So nothing can be farther than the truth. Election, ordinarily, is a divisive activity that produces winners and losers.
“That said. I’m more inclined to e-collation rather than continued upload of results,” Nwagwu said.
NAN reports that the House of Representatives and the Senate had commenced moves to reconcile the differences in their respective versions of the bill, following the constitution of a bipartisan conference committee by both chambers.
This was as a result of the differences in key provisions of the proposed amendment, particularly Section 60(3) which deals with the electronic transmission of election results from polling units.
NAN also reports that the Senate had, on Feb. 4, rejected a proposed amendment to Clause 60, subsection 3 of the Electoral Amendment Bill 2026 seeking to make the electronic transmission of election results from polling units compulsory.
The senate adopted the existing provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 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.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives House, in its December 2025 amendment, had made real-time electronic transmission of results to the INEC Result Election Viewer (IREV) portal mandatory.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
PUO/WAS
Edited by ‘Wale Sadeeq
