Electoral Reform: Protesters Stay Off National Assembly After Reps Align With Senate On Result Transmission

Protesters, demanding the inclusion of mandatory electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2025 have apparently stayed off the main entrance of the National Assembly.

This is as the House of Representatives on Tuesday turned around to approve both manual and electronic transmission of election results, aligning with the position of the Senate.

Activists had been staging a week- long protest at the National Assembly, insisting that the National Assembly Conference Committee adopt the House of Representatives’ version of the bill.

But when LEADERSHIP visited on Wednesday morning, the protesters who usually assemble as early as 8am were no longer on ground as at 10am.

The main entrance of the National Assembly where they usually gather was visibly empty, except for a handful of staff going into the complex and security operatives manning the ‘Mopol’ gate.

Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act amendment bill earlier passed by the House made it mandatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) in real time, alongside physical collation of results.

However, the new one states that: “(3) The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or Polling agents where available at the Polling Unit.

“Provided that if the electronic transmission of the result fails as a result of communication failure and it becomes impossible to transmit the result contained in form EC8A, signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling unit, the form EC8A shall remain the primary source of collation and declaration of the result.”

LEADERSHIP reports that personnel of Nigeria Police Force had threw canisters of teargas at protesters at the National Assembly main entrance on Tuesday.

Trouble started when some protesters who besieged the National Assembly to express their grievances against Senate’s approval of both electronic transmission and manual collation of election results tried to forcefully gain entrance in the building.

That led to a pandemonium as the protesters in their hundreds, especially women who were scampering for safety fall on one after the other.

LEADERSHIP observed that two women of about 50 and 22 years each fainted as a result of the tear gas inhalation just as its Correspondents suffered severe eye pain and other irritations as a result of exposure to dangerous substance.

End.