Protesters returned to the National Assembly on Monday, urging lawmakers to include a requirement in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2026, for the real-time electronic transmission of election results.
The demonstrators, who were drawn from civil society organisations such as Situation Room Nigeria and ActionAid Nigeria, demanded that the election process be entirely devoid of manual result collation in order to guard against collation centre manipulation.
They maintained that results from polling units must be sent electronically in real time, with no backup plan for manual processes, in order to ensure complete transparency.
Following promises made to the groups following last Tuesday’s Senate session, there was a five-day respite in protests before the protest.
The demonstrators were forced to hold their demonstration outside the main gates of the National Assembly building when security personnel blocked the doors.
The protesters insisted that there was no reason to keep manual backups, pointing out that election-related funding already covered the equipment needed for results to be transmitted electronically.
The Electoral Act Amendment Bill’s Clause 60(3) has recently generated controversy in the Senate, which coincides with the renewed protest.
Following the discussion, lawmakers agreed to allow results to be transmitted electronically to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal, but they kept manual collation in place as a fallback in case of technological difficulties.
On Tuesday, February 17, at 11 a.m., the Senate will meet again to discuss other national issues.
The demonstrators, however, pledged to keep up the pressure on politicians and would not give up until the amended law fully guarantees real-time electronic transmission of election results.
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