The Senate has voted against a proposed amendment that would have made electronic transmission of polling unit results to the IReV portal compulsory in the new Electoral Act 2025 Bill. The proposal appeared in Clause 60(5) of the draft legislation and sought to mandate presiding officers to transmit results electronically in real time after completing and signing Form EC8A.
The amendment was introduced to strengthen transparency through technology based result management, but lawmakers rejected it and agreed to retain the provisions already contained in the 2022 Electoral Act. The Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, promptly seconded the motion opposing the clause.
If adopted, the clause would have required presiding officers to upload results to IReV immediately after signing and stamping the result sheet, in addition to announcing them at the polling unit. The Senate instead upheld the existing framework where presiding officers manually complete, sign, and stamp result forms, issue copies to agents and security personnel where present, announce the results at the polling unit, and then transfer them in a manner determined by the electoral commission, without making electronic transmission obligatory.
Lawmakers also rejected a separate amendment in Clause 47 that would have allowed voters to present electronically generated voter identification, including a downloadable voter card with a unique QR code, for accreditation. The chamber voted to retain the requirement that voters must present a Permanent Voter’s Card at polling units.
The Senate further maintained the position that voter verification and authentication must rely on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System or any other technology approved by the Independent National Electoral Commission, rather than expanding the use of alternative digital identification.
With these decisions, the Senate preserved PVC based accreditation and BVAS usage while declining amendments aimed at broadening digital voter identity options and mandating electronic transmission of results.
