A critical joint committee meeting to harmonize the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, failed to hold after members of the House of Representatives did not attend the scheduled session in Abuja.
The conference committee, made up of lawmakers from both the Senate and the House, was expected to reconcile key differences between the two versions of the bill, particularly on electronic transmission of election results.
The House version mandates real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), making it compulsory.
The Senate version allows electronic transmission but removes the “real-time” requirement and permits manual submission of results using Form EC8A if network issues occur.
The meeting was initially scheduled for 11 a.m. on February 16 but could not proceed due to the absence of House members. Attempts to reconvene later in the day also failed.
As of now, no agreement has been reached, delaying final harmonization of the bill ahead of plenary consideration.
The Electoral Act amendment is considered critical to Nigeria’s election process ahead of the 2027 general elections.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
