The Senate amended Section 60 of the Electoral Act to allow presiding officers at polling units to electronically transmit election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Results Viewing Portal (IREV). .
The decision came during an emergency plenary, following widespread public outrage triggered by the passage of the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026, which removed the mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results from polling units.
During debate The proposal supported by Senate Chief Whip Senator Tahir Monguno (APC,Borono North) citing electronic transmission as the primary method of uploading results with a manual transmission of results using Form EC8A as an option in the event of technical challenges, sparked division among lawmakers, particularly over the reliance on Form EC8A as the primary source of election results.
The division prompted Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA,Abia South) to call for individual vote on the matter to clearly determine the position of each lawmaker but he later withdrew his request
However The president of the senate Godswill akpabio noted that if electronic transmission fails due to communication or network issues, the manual result sheet (Form EC8A) would become the primary source for result collation.
The Senate also approved the appointment of 12 members to work in collaboration with the House of Representatives on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill
