With INEC’s election timetable looming, civil society warns that delays could reopen old legal loopholes and weaken public trust.
The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has raised the alarm, urging the Senate to urgently pass the Electoral Amendment Bill 2025, warning that further delays could undermine preparations for the 2027 general elections.
Speaking at an emergency press conference in Kano, CITAD Executive Director Yunusa Zakari-Ya’u recalled that INEC’s promise of electronic transmission of results in 2023 boosted public confidence—but its failure to fully implement it later exposed gaps in the law.
According to him, many post-election cases were dismissed because the Electoral Act did not clearly make electronic transmission mandatory, allowing courts to rely on legal ambiguities. That fallout, he said, sparked nationwide calls for reforms.
Zakari-Ya’u explained that after extensive consultations and public hearings, the National Assembly produced an amendment bill that would mandate electronic transmission, impose stiffer penalties on erring INEC officials, grant greater financial autonomy to INEC, and strengthen internal party democracy.
While the House of Representatives passed the bill in December 2025, the Senate went on recess without concluding work on it—a move CITAD described as risky, especially with INEC required to publish the 2027 election timetable by April.
“Failure to pass the bill before then could create uncertainty around the legal framework for the next elections,” Zakari-Ya’u warned, recalling how delays derailed similar efforts ahead of the 2019 polls.
CITAD is now calling on the Senate to act swiftly to avoid repeating past mistakes and to restore confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process ahead of 2027.
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