The Senate has passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Reenactment) Amendment Bill 2026 for the third time.
It did, however, turn down a proposed change to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the law that would have required election results to be sent electronically.
The rejected provision would have required the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to send results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, after the presiding officer signed and stamped Form EC&A and the candidates signed it as well.
Instead, the Senate kept the part of the Electoral Act that says, “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.”
Earlier, the upper chamber turned down a proposed 10-year prison sentence for anybody who buy or sell Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) under Clause 22. Instead, they kept the two-year prison sentence and raised the punishment from ₦2 million to ₦5 million, according to Channels TV.
The conclusion was made today when looking at Clause 22 of the Electoral Amendment Bill.
Lawmakers also changed Clause 28 about the notification of election, cutting the time frame from 360 days to 180 days.
The original rule said that the commission had to issue a notice of the election in every state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory at least 360 days before the election.
The Senate cut the time that political parties had to send in lists of candidates and accompanying affidavits from 180 days to 90 days in Clause 29.
The new rule says that “every political party shall, not later than 90 days before the date appointed for a general election under this Act, submit to the Commission, in the prescribed forms, the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor at the elections, who shall have emerged from valid primaries conducted by the political party.”
The Senate also kept the part of Clause 44 that says how ballot papers should look. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must send a written invitation to each political party that nominated a candidate to check its identity on samples of necessary electoral materials at least 20 days before an election.
Political parties have two days to write back and say whether they agree or disagree with how their name looks on the samples.
The Senate replaced smart card readers with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voting and accreditation under Clause 47.
However, after a lot of discussion, lawmakers decided against using electronically generated voter identification and instead chose the Permanent Voter Card as the way to identify voters at polling places.
The Senate also removed Clause 142, which said that “it shall not be necessary for a party who alleges non-compliance with the provisions of this Bill for the conduct of elections to call oral evidence if originals or certified true copies of relevant documents manifestly disclose the non-compliance alleged.”
People argued that the provision would be a waste of time in court, thus it was taken out.
About the Author
