The Nigerian Senate will consider and possibly pass the 2025 Electoral Act Amendment Bill on Thursday, following the distribution of copies to all Senators to allow for thorough review.
Though lawmakers were given 24 hours to study the bill ahead of its consideration, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, emphasised that this is not a bill to be rushed or treated as routine legislative business.
He directed that Senators be allowed to take copies home and announced that a brief closed-door session would be held before plenary on Thursday to deliberate on the bill’s critical clauses.
Akpabio noted that the legislation is central to Nigeria’s electoral framework and rushing it could lead to disputes at election tribunals
He says careful review will ensure a free, fair, and credible electoral process, that will benefit all Nigerians regardless of political affiliation.
Among the key recommendations in the bill for the 2027 general elections is the electronic transmission of results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, iREV in real time, alongside physical collation of votes.
The bill also introduces penalties for presiding officers who fail to sign and stamp ballot papers and results, and updates sections of the 2022 Electoral Act, including replacing “smart card reader” with “Bimodal Voter Accreditation System.”
Other proposed measures include protecting visually impaired and incapacitated voters, and imposing harsher penalties for the buying and selling of voters’ cards, raising fines from N500,000 to N5 million.
Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, affirmed that the report from the Committee on Electoral Matters would be scrutinised clause-by-clause on Thursday during plenary, after the brief closed-door session.
The House of Representatives had passed the bill before the Yuletide holiday. Its passage by the Senate will ensure that there will be a harmonised version by early next week for signing into law by President Bola Tinubu. The President however needs to sign it in good ahead of INEC’s of public notice for the 2027 general election in February.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
