Senate President Godswill Akpabio has clarified that the Senate did not reject the electronic transmission of election results during consideration of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
Akpabio made the statement shortly after the Senate passed the bill following a marathon session that lasted about four and a half hours.
Consideration of the contentious amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the bill began at around 2:00 p.m. and continued until 6:26 p.m., fueling online speculation that lawmakers had voted against mandatory electronic transmission of results.
Earlier reports suggested that the red chamber had shot down a proposal that would have required presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit results electronically from each polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real time, after signing and stamping the prescribed result forms.
The reports claimed that the Senate had instead retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that the presiding officer shall transfer results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner prescribed by the Commission.
However, Akpabio insisted that this interpretation was misleading, emphasizing that the Senate did not remove electronic transmission from the law.
“Distinguished colleagues, social media is already awash with reports claiming that the Senate has rejected electronic transmission of results. That is not true. What we did was retain the electronic transmission provision that has been in the Act and was used in 2022.
“So please, do not allow people to confuse you. If you are in doubt, we will make our final votes and proceedings available to you upon request.
“This Senate under my leadership has not rejected electronic transmission of results. It is in my interest as a participant in the next election for this to be done. So please, don’t go with the crowd.
“We have retained what was in the previous provision by way of amendment. That was all we did. The previous law already made allowance for electronic transmission, so it remains part of our law. We cannot afford to go backwards,” Akpabio said.
