A coalition of civil society activists under the Movement for Credible Elections (MCE) has condemned the Senate’s rejection of a mandatory electronic transmission clause from the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026, the group said on Saturday.
The clause would have required results from polling units to be electronically transmitted.
The activists said the clause was removed during legislative consideration in the National Assembly ahead of the 2027 general elections. They described the Senate’s action as a setback for electoral transparency.
In a statement signed in Abuja by the MCE Media Coordinator, Comrade James Ezema, the group urged the Senate to reinstate and pass the mandatory electronic transmission provision in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The activists also called for public accounting by lawmakers who opposed the clause.
The MCE said it considers the electronic transmission clause a “minimum safeguard” against result tampering, ballot rewriting and post‑election fraud”.
It said rejecting the clause could leave the existing vulnerabilities in the electoral process unchanged ahead of the 2027 elections.
The statement listed key members of the MCE Steering Council, including Dr Usman Bugaje, Prof Pat Utomi, Dr Oby Ezekwesili and Barr Femi Falana, SAN, among others.
The group said it is non‑partisan and includes participants from various sectors, such as youth, women, persons with disabilities, workers, professionals and civil society.
The activists framed the Senate’s rejection of the amendment as prioritising opacity over transparency. They said the clause’s removal could affect confidence in election result integrity and called for accountability from the National Assembly to Nigerians.
The statement came amid ongoing public discussion about the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026. Senate President Godswill Akpabio has said the National Assembly will not be intimidated in its legislative duties, and that the amendment process was not yet complete.
He noted that debates were still ongoing and that electronic transmission remained part of the broader discussion on electoral legislation.
Akpabio said the Senate’s removal of the real‑time specification aimed to allow greater flexibility for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in deciding how results are transmitted, noting concerns about infrastructure limitations.
The clause at issue was part of a broader amendment effort designed to update Nigeria’s electoral legal framework ahead of the 2027 polls.
The proposed language would have required presiding officers to transmit results electronically from polling units in real time. Critics said retaining only discretionary electronic transmission could reduce clarity on result reporting.
Debates over the clause reflect wider discussions among political actors and civil society about reforms to strengthen electoral transparency and public confidence in election outcomes.
