The Senate has rejected a key amendment aimed at modernising the country’s electoral process, choosing instead to retain the existing provision for the manual transfer of election results.
The proposed change to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the Electoral Amendment Bill would have mandated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results from polling units to its central portal in real-time.
This system, designed to bolster transparency and public confidence, would have required presiding officers to upload results immediately after the completion and signing of Form EC8A in the presence of party agents.
Instead, the Senate upheld the current wording of the Act, which states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”
This retention leaves the method and timeliness of result transfer entirely at the discretion of INEC, maintaining the status quo of a process that has been a focal point of controversy and legal challenges in past elections.
Critics argue that the manual transfer of results through physical collation centers is vulnerable to manipulation and delays, which the electronic transmission clause sought to mitigate.
Details of the legislative debate and the voting tally are expected to be released shortly. The bill will proceed through further legislative stages before being sent to the President for assent.
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