Despite strong opposition, Tinubu signs Electoral Bill into law

President Bola Tinubu has signed the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill 2026 into law despite strong opposition to the bill.

The signing ceremony took place at the State House, Abuja, at about 5:00pm on Wednesday, with principal officers of the National Assembly in attendance.

The National Assembly had on Tuesday passed the Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment) Bill.

We had previously reported that the Senate on Tuesday approved electronic transmission of election results, with manual collation retained as a backup.

The development had sparked controversy, with many Nigerians expressing outrage at the lawmakers’ action.

Recall that Akpabio had said President Tinubu was expected to sign the amended Electoral Act into law this month.

Akpabio said this during an emergency plenary session where the lawmakers constituted a committee to harmonise its version of the bill with the one passed by the House of Representatives amid the backlash triggered by some amendments to the Act.

“I believe that if you are able to conclude within this, in the next few days or one week, the President should be able to sign this amended Electoral Bill into an Act of Parliament within this month of February. So I wish you a worthy deliberation with your colleagues,” he had said.

Last week, protesters comprising civil society organisations and opposition figures, including Rotimi Amaechi and Peter Obi, stormed the National Assembly complex as civil society organisations and opposition figures mounted pressure on lawmakers to mandate live transmission of results from polling units directly to INEC’s central server.

The protesters argued that real-time transmission would reduce result manipulation and strengthen public confidence in the electoral process.

However, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and some stakeholders have raised concerns about the technical feasibility of live transmission, particularly in communities with weak telecommunications infrastructure.

They have argued for a phased or hybrid approach that would allow manual collation where electronic systems fail.