Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has faulted the Senate over its stance on the Electoral Act, arguing that having both manual and electronic transmission of results in the bill will cause further confusion.
Atiku spoke on Tuesday after a visit to ex-military President Ibrahim Babangida, alongside Oyo Seyi Makinde, at his residence in Minna, Niger State.
“Nigerians were expecting real-time electronic transfer to the various levels of the elections. But what we got is a mixture of electronic and manual transmission, which is going to cause more confusion or chaos,” the chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (APC) told reporters after the visit.
“At this point, this is not about me contesting elections. It is about Nigerians who want electronic transmission of election results,” he said.
Last week, the Electoral Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2026, passed third reading, but the Senate removed the requirement for the real-time electronic transmission of election results.
The lawmakers retained the 2022 Electoral Act provision giving the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) power to determine how election results are transmitted.
On Tuesday, the Senate, however, reversed its stance on the approval of Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act. It reviewed the framework, designating electronic transmission as the main mode of uploading results. But the manual submission of results via Form EC8A in cases where there are technical issues.
But Atiku, a former presidential candidate, said the “preference” of opposition politicians was a “single-tier electoral transmission system”.
“Then, if we have a single-tier electoral transmission system that is real-time electronic, that would be our preference, and I think there is a need for all the opposition political parties to come together to pursue this issue,” the ADC chieftain said.
“ I mean, we shouldn’t allow it to rest where they wanted it to rest today. Absolutely not. I don’t support that.”
