E-transmission: Why Many Current Lawmakers May Not Return After 2027 Polls – Ex-INEC Commissioner, Igini

A former National Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Barr. Mike Igini, has said many members of the current National Assembly may be victims of election rigging if they refuse to ensure results are only transmitted electronically.

He stated this in a statement on Sunday in which he urged the National Assembly to jettison the provision of manual transmission in addition to electronic transmission of election results as recently passed by the Senate.

Igini noted that previous lawmakers who refused to pass laws that supported credible and transparent elections ended up being victims of a process which reduces them to supplicants rather than autonomous stakeholders, beholden to executive whims at federal and state levels.

He said, “Those earlier Assemblies, for reasons of convenience and party loyalty, refused to address well-documented election rigging vulnerabilities in our electoral laws, like the very proviso now introduced by the Senate, to qualify direct electronic transmission.

“Such lacunae were exploited to subvert polling-unit outcomes during their tenure by those who denied them re-election party tickets, rendering them victims of the very defects they declined to remedy or introduce to the Act,” he said.

The former national commissioner added that Nigerians and indeed incumbent legislators, particularly those that have demonstrated competence, independence and legislative proficiency, deserving of re-election, require this safeguard more acutely than any other cohort for legislative institutional capacity building.

He said the statistical table of analyses of legislative turnover, reveal a persistently alarming attrition rate across both chambers of the National Assembly, which underscores the systemic vulnerability of legislators to manipulable electoral process because deliberate loopholes are created in the laws, as could be seen from past failures to do the right thing.

“This is an institutional self-harm that will undermine national democratic consolidation.

According to him, in the Senate, the Sixth Senate (2007-2011) returned only 23 of 109 members, with 86 newly elected Senators,representing a turnover rate of 79%.

“The Seventh Senate (2011-2015) recorded 36 re-elections and 73 new entrants (67% turnover).

“The Eighth Senate (2015–2019) saw 39 returning Senators and 70 newcomers (64% turnover).

“The Ninth Senate (2019–2023) marginally improved with 45 re-elected and 64 newly elected members, yielding a 59% turnover rate.
“Alarmingly, the current Tenth Senate (2023–2027) has regressed sharply, with only 25 returning Senators and 84 new entrants—translating to a staggering 77% turnover.”
He said a similar destabilising pattern persisted in the House of Representatives.
“In the Sixth House (2007–2011), merely 80 of 360 members were re-elected, while 280 were newcomers (78% turnover).
“The Seventh House (2011–2015) recorded 100 re-elected members against 260 newly elected (72% turnover).
“The Eighth House (2015–2019) saw 110 returnees and 250 new legislators (69.4% turnover).
“The Ninth House (2019–2023) marked the lowest attrition in this period, with 151 re-elected and 209 newly elected members (57% turnover).
“However, the present Tenth House (2023–2027) has again deteriorated, returning only 109 members while ushering in 251 new legislators producing a 70% turnover rate.”
He said across these electoral cycles, Nigerians and legislators have been the major victims and casualties of the type of proviso on E- transmission that has just been introduced that had led to the huge turnover in both chambers.
“Their attrition rate has averaged well above 60 -70%, with fewer than four in ten Senators and barely one-third of Representatives typically securing re-election.”
He lamented that this “chronic instability” breeds institutional amnesia, dissipates scarce public resources on perpetual induction and retraining, weakens legislative oversight, and erodes continuity in law-making and executive accountability.
“The vulnerability stems fundamentally from manipulable polling units result during collation processes, where credible polling-units result evidence cannot be adduced to substantiate constituency support.
“Legislators, notwithstanding strong local backing for them, are reduced to supplicants rather than autonomous stakeholders, beholden to executive whims at federal and state levels.”
He stressed that Real-time electronic transmission is not merely desirable but essential for the sustenance of democracy and for re-election of deserving Legislature Members’ political survival.

End.