Recently the Nigerian Senate passed its version of the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026. In that process, senators did not approve a proposed change to make real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units compulsory. Instead, they left the wording closer to the existing law, which gives the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) discretion on how results are transmitted rather than legally forcing real-time uploads from every polling unit.
The senate cited several reasons for their position.
1. Technical and logistical concerns
Some lawmakers argue that Nigeria’s network coverage, electricity reliability, and technology infrastructure aren’t uniformly dependable across all parts of the country, especially in rural and remote areas, making mandatory real-time electronic transmission difficult to implement fairly.
There are worries among some senators about cybersecurity risks, such as potential hacking or glitches, and fears that sudden breakdowns in the system could cause confusion or disputes.
2. Legal and procedural positions
The Senate leadership, including the Senate President, has argued that electronic transmission is still part of the law, but that the amendment didn’t need to explicitly make real-time e-transmission mandatory because the existing provisions already allow it. This is their interpretation of how the law should work.
3. Desire to give INEC flexibility
Some senators believe that INEC itself should retain discretion to decide how and when electronic transmission is used, depending on what is technically feasible and secure on election day, instead of being legally bound to real-time uploads at every polling station.
However, many civil society groups, political parties like ADC, and election integrity advocates strongly disagree with the Senate’s position. They argue that:
Keeping electronic transmission optional or vague weakens election transparency and could enable manipulation of results once they leave polling units.
The Senate’s stance appears to roll back reforms sought after the widely criticised 2023 elections, where failure to upload results in real time was a major point of contention.
The leadership of ADC, the chief opposition party in the coming general election vehemently refused this position, arguing that, this will give rooms to Electoral fraud.
Real-time electronic transmission is seen by many reform advocates as one of the strongest ways to reduce opportunities for result tampering because results are published instantly and directly from polling units. When that is not mandatory, critics say there’s more room for human interference and dispute.
The bottom line is that, the refusal to electronically transmit results real-time places a dent in our Electoral process.
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