……THE ELECTORAL ACT IS NOW A MEANINGLESS RITUAL.
The Senate’s passage of the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2026—with amendments that largely retain the status quo—amounts to nothing more than a routine ritual devoid of substance. While lawmakers made superficial changes, such as reducing the election notice publication timeline from 360 to 180 days, the core reforms needed to safeguard electoral integrity were deliberately sidelined.
The refusal to advance the critical amendment mandating real-time electronic transmission of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal has stripped the entire exercise of any meaningful force. By rejecting the proposed Clause 60(5) and clinging to the discretionary language of the 2022 Act—where transmission occurs only “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission”—the Senate has preserved the very vulnerabilities that have plagued previous elections: opportunities for manual collation interference, result alteration, and widespread mistrust.
This decision renders the amended Act toothless in guaranteeing transparency and credibility. Without compulsory electronic uploads immediately after Form EC8A is signed and countersigned, the system remains susceptible to the same manipulations that have eroded public confidence time and again.
The other retained provisions, including reliance on physical PVCs for accreditation despite BVAS usage, further highlight a reluctance to embrace genuine technological safeguards.
Most alarmingly, this missed opportunity sends a devastating message to Nigeria’s youth—the demographic with the highest potential to drive voter turnout and democratic renewal. Young voters, already disillusioned by repeated cycles of electoral irregularities and unfulfilled promises of reform, see no incentive to participate when the process appears rigged against integrity. By prioritizing political expediency over bold, trust-building measures, the Senate has not only failed to encourage greater youth engagement but has actively discouraged it, perpetuating apathy and low participation that weakens our democracy at its roots.
This is not an oversight. It is a conscious choice to keep the door wide open for result manipulation, ballot stuffing at collation centres, and the kind of midnight magic that has repeatedly stolen the people’s mandate. The retention of discretionary transmission clauses means INEC can still be pressured, coerced, or simply choose convenience over transparency whenever it suits powerful interests. The youth, civil society, international observers, and ordinary citizens who demanded compulsory electronic upload were not asking for the moon—they were asking for the bare minimum of modern electoral integrity.
Yet the Senate, in its arrogance and self-interest, spat in their faces.
This disgraceful act sends a clear message to every young Nigerian: your vote does not matter enough for us to protect it with the simplest, most effective technological safeguard available. It tells the next generation that the system is designed not to reflect their will, but to frustrate and exhaust it. It confirms the worst fears of millions who have watched election after election descend into violence, litigation, and disillusionment.
Nigeria deserves more than cosmetic tinkering; it needs courageous reforms that inspire belief in the ballot. Until mandatory electronic transmission and other transparency-enhancing provisions are enshrined, such legislative passages will remain empty gestures, offering no real protection for the people’s will.
Chief Peter Ameh Former National Chairman, IPAC