President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Electoral Act 2026 into law, opening a new chapter in Nigeria’s electoral reforms and reviving nationwide debate over the electronic transmission of results ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The legislation, which replaces the 2022 electoral law, was passed earlier this week by the National Assembly after months of debate and committee reviews. Lawmakers said the new framework is intended to strengthen the integrity of the country’s voting system and respond to concerns that trailed recent polls.
Attention quickly shifted, however, to the contentious question of electronic transmission. Civil society groups and opposition parties have long called for the mandatory, real-time upload of polling unit results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s central server, arguing that such a move would improve transparency and limit opportunities for manipulation.
The issue gathered fresh momentum last week when protesters assembled outside the National Assembly to demand compulsory live transmission. Their concerns are rooted largely in the 2023 general elections, during which technical problems disrupted uploads to INEC’s results portal, fuelling public mistrust and political tension.
While leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress have expressed support for expanding the use of technology in elections, some stakeholders are urging a more cautious approach. They argue that Nigeria’s uneven telecommunications infrastructure makes a fully digital system vulnerable, particularly in remote communities, and have proposed a phased or hybrid model that would allow manual collation where electronic systems fail.
With the new electoral law now in force, political parties, election officials and observers are turning their attention to preparations for 2027. The next two years are likely to test how Africa’s most populous country balances the promise of technological innovation with the practical challenges of organising elections across a vast and complex terrain.
