PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has signed the Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment) Bill into law.
The bill was passed on Tuesday by the National Assembly following weeks of intense debates, reviews, and amendments by both chambers.
The signing ceremony was held at the State House on Wednesday at about 5:00 p.m., with principal officers of the National Assembly in attendance.
The ICIR reported that Tinubu signed the Act just about 24 hours after it was passed by the National Assembly, against the wishes of many lawmakers.
The House of Representatives revisited some clauses of the Act on Tuesday during an executive session convened after opposition lawmakers attempted to block the move to reverse the earlier passage in December 2025.
Opposition lawmakers staged a walkout and proceeded to the House of Representatives Press Centre, following the rejection of the amendment of the Act demanding that votes should be transmitted electronically and real time to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) IReV portal immediately after they are counted at the polling unit.
The Minority Leader, Chinda led the lawmakers to chant “APC, Ole (thief)” and alleged that the process was driven by partisan interests rather than national good. Some claimed that certain members had collected money, although no names or parties were mentioned.
Chinda said opposition members opposed the approved versions of Sections 60 and 84. On Section 60, he maintained that results should be “transmitted electronically without any proviso that reverts to manual collation in the event of transmission failure.”
The ICIR reported a similar rowdy session in the Senate last week over the Electoral Act, a development that prompted the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to reconstitute the harmonisation committee to resolve outstanding differences between both chambers.
Akpabio subsequently reappointed Simon Lalong (APC, Plateau South) as chairman of the committee.
Meanwhile some Nigerians, including the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, have joined the coalition of civil society organisations to demand the inclusion of a compulsory provision for real-time electronic transmission of election results in the Act, warning that Nigeria’s democracy would not survive without credible polls.
They made their demand in a peaceful demonstration at the National Assembly in Abuja all through last week.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.