Protesters on Monday assembled at the entrance of Nigeria’s National Assembly in Abuja to demand the inclusion of mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results in the proposed Electoral Act amendment.
The demonstration, tagged “Occupy National Assembly,” drew members of civil society organisations, women’s groups, and a small number of supporters of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Security was heightened at the scene, with personnel deployed from the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. Police barricaded access to the National Assembly complex, although protesters said they had no intention of entering the premises.
The protest follows the Senate’s passage of the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026, which was approved on third reading last week. However, the upper chamber rejected a proposed amendment to Clause 60(3) that sought to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory.
The rejected provision would have required Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) presiding officers to electronically transmit polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal in real time, after signing and stamping the appropriate result forms.
Instead, the Senate retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which allows results to be transferred “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission,” thereby leaving the mode and timing of transmission to INEC’s discretion.
Although Senate President Godswill Akpabio later clarified that the Senate did not abolish electronic transmission, protesters insist that the law must explicitly state “real-time electronic transmission” to prevent ambiguity.
“Electronic transmission has always been in our Act,” Akpabio said. “What we did was retain the existing provision, which already makes provision for electronic transmission.”
Protesters, however, argue that the absence of a clear legal mandate for real-time transmission undermines electoral transparency and increases the risk of manipulation during collation.
Some civil society representatives told journalists that the protest would remain peaceful and confined to the National Assembly gate. The demonstrators reportedly began their march from the Federal Secretariat before converging on the National Assembly complex.
The protest comes amid growing public debate over electoral reforms ahead of the 2027 general elections, with civil society groups and opposition parties calling for stronger safeguards to ensure credible and transparent polls.
