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As part of measures to reform the nation’s electoral systems, the National Assembly has proposed that the presidential and governorship elections should hold in November 2026. This is exactly six months ahead of the expiration of the current administration in 2027. The proposal is to have enough time to conclude all electoral petitions arising from the polls before swearing-in of new elected officials on May 29, 2027. The draft amendment was unveiled recently in Abuja, during a public hearing jointly organised by the Senate and House Committees on Electoral Matters.
Under the proposed Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2025, “elections into the office of the President and Governor of a state shall be held not later than 185 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of the office.” If enacted into law, the polls would fall in November 2026 –six months as against the current schedule that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has drawn up for national elections to hold in February 2027 and state elections, two weeks later. The lawmakers also plan that elections into federal and state legislative seats “shall be held not later than 185 days before the date on which each of the houses stands dissolved.”
House Committee on Electoral Matters Chairman, Adebayo Balogun, said the amendment would help prevent situations where court cases linger after persons declared to have won elections had assumed office. He added that the National Assembly plans to amend Sections 285 and 139 of the 1999 Constitution to shorten the timelines for election petitions, reduce tribunal judgments from 180 to 90 days, appellate court decisions from 90 to 60 days, and ensure that the entire judicial process does not exceed 185 days.
The amendment further seeks to make the electronic transmission of results mandatory, with penalties for non-compliance. The proposed Section 60 (5) reads, “The Presiding Officer shall transmit the results, including the total number of accredited voters, to the next level of collation both electronically and manually.” Failure to comply would attract a penalty of one-year imprisonment, N1million fine, or both. This differs markedly from the current framing of the law that permits any procedure prescribed by INEC.
Other key proposals in the bill include early voting for certain categories of Nigerians, such as security personnel, INEC staff, accredited journalists, and observers, at least 14 days before Election Day. The proposed legislation is part of moves by the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act 2022. Any reform that will enhance the credibility of our elections is welcome. Ending electoral disputes before inauguration of elected officials is a step in the right direction.
In the same vein, electronic transmission of result will improve the transparency of our elections and make the outcome believable. It will equally deepen our nascent democracy. Under the extant electoral laws, INEC determines whether results are transmitted electronically or manually.
In 2023, INEC deployed the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to enhance the transparency of election results and boost public trust in electoral system. It also said that the technological innovation will address the weaknesses in Nigeria’s election result management process. These were the falsification of votes at polling units, falsification of number of accredited voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results and computational errors. Others included the swapping of results sheets, forging of results sheets, snatching and destruction of results sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, making declaration and return while result collation was still in progress and poor record keeping.
Unfortunately, INEC bungled the use of technological innovation in the 2023 general election. The technical glitches contributed so much to the shoddiness of the conduct of that poll. Manual transmission of election results has tacitly encouraged rigging and manipulation of election results. We believe that electronic transmission of election results will make the poll credible, free and fair.
However, there is need to ensure that the new proposals do not create more challenges for the system. We hope that the amendment will not lead to early campaigns, which may disrupt real governance across the country. Therefore, we call for strengthening of INEC and the election tribunals to enable them discharge their duties diligently. Nevertheless, we urge for more consultations with other stakeholders in carrying out the electoral reforms. The National Assembly should put the interest of Nigerians first in amending the Electoral Act 2022.
