Senate seeks to make e-transmission of election results compulsory by law

The Senate revealed its intention to change the Electoral Act 2022 to require electronic transmission of results for the 2027 general elections. The upper house made this announcement after its retreat in Ikot Ikpene, Akwa-Ibom State, on Friday.

The Senate said in a statement that the change would also permit diaspora voting, at least for presidential elections, to allow citizens, especially those on essential service abroad, to vote. The Senate stated that this would improve the trustworthiness and openness of the electoral process and lower the risk of interference and violence.

The Senate also agreed to split the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enhance its performance and effectiveness in planning and conducting elections. The statement said that INEC should be separated into two entities: one for carrying out elections and another for regulating and overseeing political parties.

The Senate’s intention to make electronic transmission of results compulsory is different from its previous stance that the Electoral Act 2022 did not have such a provision. The Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, said in February that the Act only gave INEC the option to transmit results electronically or manually.

However, some stakeholders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the National Peace Committee led by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, had criticized the alleged manual transmission of results by some INEC presiding officers in the 2023 elections. They had demanded the cancellation of the results in dispute and the rescheduling of such elections for March 4.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had also contested the outcome of the 2023 presidential election at the Supreme Court, alleging that INEC was compromised and that the election was rigged in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. They had asserted that INEC failed to comply with the Electoral Act on e-transmission of results, among other irregularities.

The Supreme Court, however, rejected their appeal on March 10 and confirmed Tinubu’s victory as valid. The apex court ruled that there was no evidence to show that INEC transmitted election results electronically or that such transmission was obligatory under the law.

The Senate’s intention to change the Electoral Act to make electronic transmission of results compulsory is expected to address some of the issues raised by the opposition parties and other stakeholders. The Senate said it would speed up action on the change and ensure its approval before the end of the year.