Amadi, Itodo seek amendment of Electoral Act to scrap manual result transmission
A member of the African Democratic Congress, Sam Amadi, has called for an urgent amendment to the Electoral Act 2026 to remove the provision allowing manual transmission of election results when electronic transmission fails.
Amadi made the call on Sunday during the Citizens’ Townhall on the Electoral Act 2026, arguing that the clause could undermine the credibility of elections.
According to him, the law can still be amended despite having been recently signed, noting that Bola Tinubu was able to approve the reversion of Nigeria’s national anthem within a day.
“By default, electronic transmission is now optional,” Amadi said. “My position is that we can still amend this law; by the way, President Tinubu amended the national anthem in one day. Let there be consensus to amend this section to allow Independent National Electoral Commission to do their regulation, INEC captures the event of failure.”
He warned that the proviso permitting manual transmission could create loopholes in the electoral process, as polling officers might decline to upload results by citing poor or unavailable network.
“Communication is not just electronic. This is a bad law; it could go for anything, including poor communication from the headquarters to the polling officer,” he said.
“Even if you have the internet, the polling officer may refuse to transmit on the basis that there was no communication. We should amend this section of the law quickly; it is very important.”
Also speaking at the programme, the executive director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, urged lawmakers to begin the process of amending the Electoral Act to remove the clause.
According to him, the provision undermines the core objective behind the amendment of the Electoral Act 2022, which sought to strengthen transparency in Nigeria’s elections.
“I just wish that the lawmakers would eliminate that particular proviso,” Itodo said.
“This is why we made a call to them to commence the process of amending that Act and just delete that particular proviso.
“That way, as a country, we will maximise the utility of electronic transmission of results because it limits human interference and makes the whole process open and transparent. If politicians are not scared, I see no reason why this was not considered in its full breadth.”