17.2.2026
Protesters who converged at the National Assembly Complex Tuesday to demand for mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill were chased away by Nigeria police force.
The protests returned to the National Assembly after the Senate inserted a clause into the Electoral Act 60, which mandates returning officers to manually collate and transfer results where there is no network to electronically transmit results.
Protesters said they resumed demonstrations after sensing possible reversal of earlier commitments by lawmakers to strengthen electronic result transmission provisions in the amendment bill.
Meanwhile the House of Representatives on Tuesday reversed part of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill it passed in December, particularly Section 60(3), introducing a dual system for transmitting election results.
The earlier provision mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results from polling units to its Result Viewing Portal (IREV) in real time, alongside physical collation of results.
However, the revised clause now states that presiding officers must electronically transmit results from each polling unit to the IREV portal only after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and, where available, countersigned by candidates or polling agents at the polling unit.
The amendment further provides that where electronic transmission fails due to communication challenges, the manually completed Form EC8A will serve as the primary document for result collation and declaration.
Following the passage of the new clause, opposition lawmakers staged a walkout from the chambers in protest.
The lawmakers, led by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda, later addressed journalists at the House of Representatives Media Centre, where they rejected the amendment and described it, alongside other provisions, as anti-people.
Police disperse protesters in Abuja.