The Nigerian Senate has defended its decision to make electronic transmission of election results optional rather than mandatory, citing advice from stakeholders in the telecommunications and power sectors.
Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), explained in a statement issued on Sunday that the upper chamber consulted principal actors in both sectors before amending the Electoral Act.
According to him, the consultations revealed deep infrastructural gaps that could undermine the credibility of elections if electronic transmission were made compulsory.
Bamidele noted that a significant number of Nigerian communities remain outside broadband coverage, while millions of citizens still lack access to stable electricity.
Quoting data from the Speedtest Global Index, he said Nigeria’s mobile network reliability stands at 44.14 megabits per second (Mbps), far below global leaders such as the United Arab Emirates (691.76 Mbps), Qatar (573.53 Mbps), Kuwait (415.67 Mbps), Bahrain (303.21 Mbps), and Bulgaria (289.41 Mbps), adding that Nigeria’s fixed broadband performance is equally weak, ranking 129th out of 150 countries with an average speed of 33.32 Mbps.
He further pointed to the country’s electricity challenges as a major constraint. According to the Senate Leader, at least 85 million Nigerians, approximately 43 per cent of the population, still lack access to grid electricity.
Although generation capacity hovers between 12,000 and 13,500 megawatts, distribution and transmission limitations restrict delivery to about 4,500 megawatts nationwide.
“These realities speak directly to the state of our infrastructure,” Bamidele said, arguing that making real-time electronic transmission mandatory under current conditions could introduce avoidable risks into the electoral process.
The amendment follows last Tuesday’s decision by the Senate to rescind its earlier rejection of electronic transmission from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IREV).
While the revised clause now accommodates electronic transmission, it provides that in cases of internet failure, Form EC8A will serve as the primary means of result collation.
Form EC8A is the statutory document completed by the presiding officer at each polling unit immediately after vote counting. Courts routinely rely on it during election petitions because it represents the first official record of votes at the source.
Despite the revision, the Senate stopped short of making electronic transmission mandatory. Instead, the amended provision allows electronic transmission but retains manual collation as a fallback option.
To reconcile differences between its version of the bill and that earlier passed by the House of Representatives, which mandates electronic transmission regardless of internet challenges, the Senate has constituted a nine-member harmonisation committee. The panel is scheduled to commence deliberations on Monday and recommend a final version for passage and presidential assent.
Meanwhile, several civil society organisations have urged the committee to adopt the House’s more stringent provision. The groups include Yiaga Africa, the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO), The Kukah Centre, the International Press Centre (IPC), ElectHER, the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, and TAF Africa.
Bamidele maintained that the Senate’s approach reflects legislative prudence rather than reluctance to embrace technology.
He argued that Section 62(2) of the Electoral Act 2022 already establishes a National Electronic Register of Election Results, and that imposing real-time electronic transmission nationwide under current infrastructural conditions could create uncertainty.
“The real-time electronic transmission of election results may not be practicable at this stage of our development,” he said, stressing that lawmaking must be grounded in empirical realities rather than public sentiment.
According to him, the decision to redraft Clause 60(3 & 5), including the deletion of the phrase “real-time,” was designed to ensure that Nigeria’s electoral governance framework remains practical and adaptable.
Observers say the outcome of the harmonisation process will be critical in shaping the credibility and technological direction of future elections, particularly as Nigeria continues to grapple with broadband expansion and power sector reforms.