Members of the National Assembly Conference Committee, tasked with reconciling differences in the recently passed Electoral Amendment Bill, are set to meet on Monday, February 16.
The panel, made up of lawmakers from the Senate and House of Representatives, has been given a one-week deadline to harmonise controversial clauses, particularly those related to the electronic transmission of election results.
The development comes as the National Assembly prepares to forward the harmonised version of the bill to President Bola Tinubu for assent ahead of preparations for the 2027 general elections.
Both chambers had earlier passed different versions of the bill, with disagreements centering on technological frameworks for result collation and transmission.
In line with legislative procedures, a joint conference committee was constituted to develop a unified version of the bill acceptable to both the Senate and the House.
“The harmonisation is taking place on Monday,” a National Assembly source told Punch via WhatsApp on Thursday.
A key sticking point remains the electronic transmission clause, which gained renewed attention after the 2023 general elections, where INEC was accused of failing to upload presidential election results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real time.
While both chambers have now agreed to restore electronic transmission, civil society groups and opposition lawmakers continue to demand unambiguous legal backing to strengthen electoral transparency.
Former Bayelsa State Governor and member of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Senator Seriake Dickson, confirmed the likely meeting date, saying, “I don’t know the actual date since I am not a member of the Conference Committee. But we are hoping it may take place next Monday.”
Dickson had earlier urged the committee to adopt the House version in full, warning that weakening the transmission clause could damage public trust.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had assured Nigerians that the harmonised bill would be transmitted to President Tinubu before the end of the month, with insiders indicating that Senator Simon Lalong had tentatively confirmed February 16 as the harmonisation date.
Meanwhile, a source familiar with the process told Punch that the lawmaker representing Plateau South, Senator Simon Lalong, had earlier confirmed Monday, February 16, 2026, as the date for the committee meeting to reconcile the bill ahead of its transmission for presidential assent.
“Senator Lalong has given Monday as the day of the meeting on the bill. I think the members may have been excused from the ongoing budget defence exercise by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to work on the bill, given its importance to the 2027 election,” the source said.
Although he did not expressly confirm the Monday meeting, the House spokesman, Akin Rotimi, said members drawn from both chambers had already begun consultations.
“They are already engaging,” he said, without offering further details.
In the same vein, two members of the committee, Sada Soli (APC, Katsina) and Iduma Igariwey (PDP, Ebonyi), said the meeting will likely hold on Monday.
“It’s possible but not yet confirmed,” Soli said. Igariwey, in his own take, stated, “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. Still, it 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.”