“It’s possible but not yet confirmed,” Soli said while Igariwey added, “not yet confirmed.”

The outcome of the meeting is expected to determine the final shape of the amended Electoral Act and signal the National Assembly’s position on the central issue that has dominated electoral reform debates since the last general election — the place of technology in safeguarding the credibility of Nigeria’s polls.

Although the House approved real-time transmission of election results in Section 60 (3), the Senate’s version excluded it but bowed to pressure earlier in the week to approve electronic transmission with a provision that, when technology fails, manual transmission will suffice.

The House version read, “The Commission shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, and such transmission shall be done simultaneously with the physical collation of results.”

On its part, the Senate version provides that “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling unit.

“But if the electronic transmission of the result fails as a result of communication failure, and it becomes impossible to transmit the result electronically, the signed and stamped Form EC8A by the Presiding Officer, and countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available, shall in such a case be the primary source of collation and declaration of results.”

House okays affidavit

The House also strengthened Section 31 of the Principal Act, which focused on the withdrawal of a candidate in an election.

In the Electoral Act 2022, the Section read, “A candidate may withdraw his or her candidature by notice in writing signed by him and delivered personally by the candidate to the political party that nominated him for election, and the political party shall convey such withdrawal to the Commission not later than 90 days to the election.”

The version amended by the 10th House read, “A candidate may withdraw his or her candidature by notice in writing signed by him together with a sworn affidavit and delivered personally by the candidate to the political party that nominated him for election, and the political party shall convey such withdrawal to the Commission not later than 90 days to the election.”

Tribunal timeline reduced

The House also amended Section 137 of the Principal Act on the Establishment of Area Council Election Appeal Tribunal, proposing in sub-section 7 that “The tribunal shall deliver a judgment in writing within 150 days from the date of the filing of the petition. This contrasts with the Principal Act, which provides for 180 days from the date a petition is filed.”

Meanwhile, the Senate stated that real-time transmission of election result does not automatically translate to electronic voting, contrary to insinuations in some quarters in the past few days.

The Senator representing Ondo Central, Adeniyi Adegbonmire, made this known while speaking on an Arise News programme on Thursday.

According to him, INEC does not have the capacity to conduct e-voting at present, noting that the Commission has clarified that the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) “is not an e-voting platform, but a platform where the election results that have been manually counted and declared at the polling units are uploaded and publicised.”

Adeggbonmire, who chairs the Senate Ad-hoc Panel to Review the 2026 Electoral Bill, said Nigeria had not transitioned to an e-voting system, contrary to what some people had insinuated or what some media platforms want the public to believe.

He said, “People need to understand what real-time means. Real-time transmission can only happen if  INEC adopts an e-voting system. For now, INEC does not have the capability for e-voting. Maybe in two or three years, we can adopt e-voting. But as of today, INEC has not put an e-voting system in place.

“This is the misconception that the media has brought into play. The provision you keep emphasising says the presiding officer will first fill in the result manually in Form EC8A. It is the Form EC8A that has been filled manually that will be transmitted to IReV. If we change ‘transmit’ to ‘upload’ in the Electoral Bill, 2026, will it change anything? The answer is ‘No.’”

Adegbonmire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, further explained the misconception about IReV, which, according to him, should be corrected considering its implications for the country’s peaceful co-existence.

The lawmaker, therefore, pointed out that IReV “is not a voting platform, but a podium meant to publicise election results already declared by the presiding officers at polling units across the federation.

“It is important, first of all, to understand what IReV does because there is a lot of misconception about it or deliberate misrepresentation of what it stands for. The Senate never said INEC should not use IReV for the 2027 elections. So, what is IReV? It is a software developed by INEC to publicise the results by INEC.