Nigerians Will Benefit a Lot from Future Elections — Akpabio Speaks on Electoral Law

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has stated that the Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment), signed into law on Wednesday by President Bola Tinubu, will guarantee that every Nigerian vote is counted.

Akpabio explained that the legislation tackles the long-standing issue of manipulation of election results between polling units and collation centres.

Addressing journalists shortly after the signing ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, he said the law responds to Nigerians’ concerns about the credibility of elections and introduces measures to make future polls more transparent and secure.

“At the end, Nigerians will benefit a lot from future elections. Every vote will now count,” the Senate President said.

He pointed out that this is the first time since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 that the country’s electoral laws formally recognise electronic transmission of results.

Akpabio noted that the amended Act requires electronic transmission of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, a major demand of civil society groups, opposition parties, and election observers after widespread claims of result manipulation during the 2023 general elections.

However, he added that the law also considers locations with weak telecommunications networks, maintaining that the primary source of results will still be the EC8A forms signed by presiding officers, party agents, and security personnel at polling units.

“We took cognisance of areas where there may not be any network, where there may not be communication capacities and availability.

“We said, since the polling unit result comes in from EC8A, which is signed by the presiding officer, signed by the agents, and signed in the presence of security agents, copies are given to all.

“Then we can use that as the primary source of collation at that unit,” he said.

Akpabio added, “And then, of course, we transmit it. Even if there is no network at that time, once we step out of there, maybe towards the ward centre or the local government centre, it will drop into the iREV and people will still be able to view.”

He explained that Nigerians will now be able to compare results uploaded to the portal with those collated at ward, local government, and state levels, thereby preventing tampering after results leave polling units.

“The implication of that is that if what is eventually collated at the next centre is different from what is in the iREV, Nigerians will be able to compare whether the election result had been tampered with.

“And for us, that had always been the problem in the country, that once election results leave a polling unit, they will be tampered with or mutilated. That has been eliminated today,” he said.

The Senate President rejected claims that the National Assembly yielded to political pressure, insisting the amendment resulted from extensive consultations and deliberations in both chambers.

“We are satisfied that we have met the aspiration of Nigerians, not those who are politically motivated,” he said, noting that the Senate even cut short its holiday to complete work on the bill.

Akpabio also mentioned other provisions in the law, including the adoption of direct primaries for political parties, allowing members to vote directly for their preferred candidates rather than relying on delegates.

“Participative democracy, more inclusiveness. Members of different political parties are now allowed to do direct primaries.

“That means you can choose the person you want. Delegate selection, of course, one person can write the list and then just submit, but this time around, the members who are in the political party will stand up and vote for their candidates and the candidates of their choice,” he said.

He further stated that the amendment addresses situations where election winners are disqualified by courts, explaining that instead of declaring the runner-up winner, fresh elections will now be conducted.

“We don’t want a situation where, in an election, you have five people contesting, one person scores out of 300,000 votes, one person scores 290,000, and then, for one reason or the other, he’s disqualified by the court, and then the person who scored 1,000, who is not popularly elected, will now be declared a winner.

“All those things are eliminated. We have now recommended that, where such a case happens, they should call for another election,” he said.

He added that the same rule applies to governorship elections, where candidates who fail to secure at least 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of local government areas cannot be declared winners even if they come second overall.